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readers direct knowledge of what the character is thinking about. Last, mannerism technique is a technique in which the author gives a description about the
character’s habits and attitudes.
3. Theory of Critical Approach
In this part, the writer wants to discuss the importance of the theory of critical approach. This theory has an important role in determining ‘the way’ to
analyze the novel. An approach itself is like ‘a tool’ in analyzing the novel. In other words, it may mean that an approach is the means to achieve the aims that
the researcher has. Hence, the researcher must use the most appropriate approach to analyze the novel. For example, when a researcher wants to analyze the
development of the character, she or he uses psychological approach to get reasonable results of the analysis rather than uses other approaches.
According to Rohrberger and Woods 3-17, there are five approaches that can be used in analyzing literary work. Those are formalist, biographical, socio
cultural-historical, mythopoeic and psychological approaches. First, the formalist approach focuses on the techniques and structure used
by the author in his or her writing. In applying this approach, the researcher does not need to pay attention to any external factors of the literary work, such as:
author’s life and socio-historical background of the author. Second, the biographical approach uses the author’s personal life to get a better understanding
of his or her writing. Third, the socio cultural-historical approach is used to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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investigate the social milieu when a work is created and what the work actually reflects. Fourth, the mythopoeic approach is used to discover certain universally
recurrent patterns of human thoughts in any literary work. Fifth, the psychological approach directs the researchers’ attention to the psychological situation in the
novel in order to understand the character’s aims and intentions. In this study, the writer only uses socio-cultural approach. It is because the
writer believes that taking any references from the society who becomes literary work’s background is one of some appropriate ways to analyze literary work. In
this study, the writer thinks that Japanese social milieu needs to be analyzed in order to know its reflection in Memoirs of a Geisha. Besides, Sayuri’s life as a
geisha and Japanese culture cannot be separated into two different parts. Both of them are interrelated because geisha is a unique part of Japanese society and
culture. Besides, geisha’s life itself reflects the richness of Japanese culture. The writer thinks that it is important for the reader to know some knowledge of
Japanese society and culture through Sayuri’s life as a geisha in order to clarify the readers’ interpretation about the novel. The social milieu of Japanese society
and its culture in Sayuri’s life as a Japanese woman influence her character traits as a geisha. Further, Sayuri’s character traits will influence the way she runs her
life based on the culture and values as a geisha in the novel.
B. Review of Japanese Culture
