Background of the Study
In another site by Jens Korff http:www.creativespirits.info, it is said that in 1918 the Aboriginal people are prohibited from drinking, possessing, or
supplying any alcoholic drinks. They are also were prohibited from having firearms, marrying non - Aboriginal people without permission and also having
sex with people across their color line. All these treatments received by the Aboriginal people from the whites because the white people think that they were
superior and so they have the right to oppress the Aboriginal people. So for years the Aboriginal people were struggle in resisting the unequal treatments they
receive. The resistance as the Aborigine to fight back the discrimination has been chosen by the writer as the topic that will be discussed in this study.
In this study, the writer uses the autobiography entitled When the Pelican Laughed written by Alice Nannup with Lauren Marsh and Stephen Kinnane to
discuss the topic that is chosen. The character of Alice Nannup in the When the Pelican Laughed described best how she as an Aborigine showed her resistance
towards the discrimination she experienced. Many events that took place in Alice‘s life reveal how she was discriminated, enslaved, and treated unequally.
However, Alice did not remain quiet all the time. At certain point, when she could not stand to see how she was being discriminated, Alice reacted against the
discrimination to show her resistance towards the discrimination she faced. Her resistance towards the discrimination as shown in the autobiography has attracted
the writer‘s attention to analyze it into a deeper study. However, the work of literature that the writer uses is an autobiography
book in which the main character Alice Nannnup is the writer herself. It is a story
of a life – experience about Alice herself. She used the first person point of
view ―I‖ to refer to herself. In this book, she described every event in detail and not only what happened but also how she feels about the situation happening
around her and how she reacts towards it. Her reactions in the autobiography which shows her resistance as an Aboriginal woman towards the discrimination
by the whites would be the main focus of this study. The topic is necessary to be discussed to show
Alice‘s resistance towards the discrimination as an Aborigine in order to gain her rights back that were taken
away and how it was not easy to resist the discrimination. Even though this is an autobiography which depicted the real life story and
not a fiction story unlike other novels, this autobiography could also be considered as part of a literary work that could also be chosen as an object of the
study. The reason why this autobiography can be used as one of literary works is because as Jonathan Culler in Literary Theory
says: ―To describe ‗literature‘ would be to analyze a set of assumptions and interpretive operations readers may
bring to bear on such texts Culler, 1997: 24.‖ It means that a text can be treated
as part of literary work if the readers are able to analyze a set of assumptions and also apply some operations to interpret the text. In this study, the text of
autobiography When the Pelican Laughed written by Alice Nannup could as well be analyzed and be interpreted by the readers. The readers could also apply some
operations on the autobiography text in order to understand and interpret it. Culler also stated in the same book that ―‗literature‘ is an institutional label
that gives us reason to expect that the results of our reading efforts will be ‗worth
it‘ Culler, 1997: 25.‖ It means that any text that is labeled as work of literature would give the expectation to its readers that it is worth it to be read. The
autobiography When the Pelican Laughed also has the criteria of being ―worth it‖
for the readers to spend their efforts on reading this autobiography because by reading this autobioraphy, it would give the readers new insight on the experience
of being an Aborigine that is being unequally treated by the white people. Finally, Terry Eagleton in Literary Theory defines the text to be literature
as A piece of writing may start off life as history or philosophy and then
come to be ranked as literature; or it may start off as literature and then come to be valued for its archaeological significance. Some texts are born
literary, some achieve literariness, and some have literariness thrust upon them Eagleton, 1996: 7.
When the Pelican Laughed by Alice Nannup may first started as an ordinary autobiographical work piece of writing, but then as Terry Eagleton theorizes that a
piece of writing may start off life as history or history and then be ranked as literature so is the autobiographical When the Pelican Laughed. This
autobiography may not first born as literary work, or was written but was not meant for literary purpose. However, it then, achieves its literariness because it
does contain literary values. For these reasons, the autobiography When the Pelican Laughed can be chosen as the object of this study.