The Review of Related Literature

1.6 The Review of Related Literature

In order to get further information, ideas, and other inputs dealing with the analysis of feminism, a book entitled A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, Fifth Edition by Raman Selden is used as the main source to review the relationship between feminism and literature. This book is very useful and helpful because it provides much information about feminism and its relationship with literature. It also clearly explains how feminist theories, feminist criticism, kinds of feminism, and history of feminism are closely related to literature. What has been reviewed in this book, especially in chapter 6, is that feminism has sought to disturb the complacent certainties of a patriarchal culture, to assert a belief in sexual equality, and to eradicate sexist domination in transforming society. Within this book, it can also be seen that feminism itself cannot be separated from literature. Many woman writers have used feminist criticism to free themselves from naturalized patriarchal notions of the literary and the literary-critical. They have also used their writings as propoganda for the women’s suffrage movements. In addition to that, this book is used as the main review to support the process of analyzing this thesis because it not only talks about feminism, but also gives more information in understanding literature, especially which deals with literary theories. Another source that is also used as an additional review is a book entitled Intersecting Violences: A Review of Feminist Theories and Debates on Violence against Women and Poverty in Latin America by Patricia Muñoz Cabrera. What has been reviewed in this book, primarily in chapter 4.1, is about how men use Universitas Sumatera Utara their masculinities as their sources of superiority. It is said that men quickly learn that they not only have to possess power, but they must also use it. Finally, men often misuse their superiority by committing bad treatments over women, especially in the form of violence. In this chapter 4.1, it is also said that the physical, psychological, and social harm done to the victim of violence is the consequence of the unequal distribution of power between the female victim and the male perpetrator. So, it is obvious that this becomes a strategy designed to maintain patriarchal power as a means of preventing women from escaping the subjugated status imposed upon them. The last additional review that is used to support the process of analyzing this thesis is closely related to the struggle of women to gain equality. An online article entitled Advancing Toward the Equality of Women and Men by ISGP Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity shows how great advances have been made over the years in promoting the equality between women and men through the contributions of feminist thought and numerous individuals and groups acting in different social spaces around the world. In the second point of this article, it can also be seen that women keep struggling to overcome oppression through the acquisition of self-knowledge. Universitas Sumatera Utara

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK