Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
19 Further, the elements of form
– in which irony as one of the figurative language is included
– become the particular interest of this approach. In addition, the purpose of this approach is relevant to this study. The purpose of this approach is to
determine how the analysed certain elements work together with the content in shaping effect upon readers.
According to The Virtual Theorist 2013, the formalist approach focuses on
“grammatical, rhetorical, and logical connections within texts”. A formalist approach will generate technical terms to examine a piece of literary work.
“The form, tone, language, characterization, figures of speech, point of view, setting and
theme of a text ” constitute a really wide range of aspects within an internal order.
Formalists are well aware of the text or art-object or subject matter as a construction created to generate particular responses despite that the response of readers is
beyond the control of any artist. Thus, formalists prioritize the medium used to convey the meaning over the content or the meaning itself.
Since the researcher investigated intrinsic elements of the novel, which are irony and plot, without correlating the use of them into either the meaning or
content, formalist approach was a great help to determine the answers to the problems. Focusing on the plot structure, the researcher applied formalist approach
to isolate the scenes based on the classification, then to classify the scenes into the plot structure. The same also was applied to answer the questions related to irony,
where the researcher had to find the acceptable forms that fit in the definitions and types of irony. In classifying the types of irony which were found in the story as
well, the researcher had to classify them into the most appropriate one without PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
20 correlating them into other aspects aside from the ones in the novel. By isolating
the certain elements which were to be analysed, the formalist approach was applied. Thus, formalist approach was the most appropriate approach to be used in
conducting the study.