elaborates the Authorial Ideology AuI, in order to find the author’s ideology concealed in the novel being analyzed.
b. Authorial Ideology AuI
The major strength of Eagleton’s approach is his insistence on the relation of literary works and the authors’ ideologies. Influenced by Althusser’s work, he
1976a: 60 insists that it is important to center the analysis of the literary works on the individual subjects who produce them. In reverse, the personal accounts of
those individual subjects are liquidated into literary works. Authors are not the creators of material existence, such as society, culture, history, politics and
economy Eagleton, 1976b: 32. For him, they are the producers of literary works that are ultimately determined by those given material existences. Each of them
has their own unique techniques in transforming the given materials into the literary works. The authors have the luxury to transform those materials based on
their views of the world, or ideologies. Eagleton 1976a: 58 names the ideology that is in accordance with the
authors’ biography, background and over-intended standpoint as ‘Authorial Ideology’ AuI. It is influenced by the authors’ social position, gender, race,
origin, citizenship and religion as well as their specific intentions in writing particular literary works. This ideology is the authors’ intentions that have arisen
even before the creative and imaginative writing process begins Emenyonu, 2004 384. However, great authors do not simply evoke the ideology they intend in a
descriptive language. Supposedly, an AuI does not appear on the surface, but is
does not mean that it is undiscoverable. Its invisibility exerts it greater influences upon a society and the people live in it.
Hence, it is fundamental to relate the intrinsic element of a literary work to the extrinsic elements from which its author originates. Stated by Kurniawan
2012: 49, characters, settings and plot need to be analyzed in order to achieve a wholesome Marxist analysis. The characters are classified as collective
individuals in context of class structure divided into socioeconomic classes. The class structure is then analyzed in motion with its relations to the situation within
the social, cultural, historical, political and economic settings portrayed in the work. From these relations, the interactions among the characters can be observed
to seek their destiny, which at some points will rouse class conflict. As the storyline rolls, one of the given socioeconomic classes succeeds to struggle, thus
the outcome of that conflict indicates social standing of the author. Accordingly, the AuI is implied by the socioeconomic class made won in the
conflict Kurniawan, 2012: 51. However, Marxist analysts need to take a closer look to how the representatives of that class strive from struggles before jumping
into any conclusion. At some cases, the authors put a twist on the ending, which might seem to go into one way, but actually lead to another direction. It is aimed
to make the ideology they reinforce appear even more natural. In addition, the authors’ way of thinking is necessary to be acknowledged in order to discover the
AuI. Their biography and background, like how their childhood was, how they were brought up, how the writing process of the literary works was and how the
authors’ social lives are, can ease the analysis Eagleton, 1976a: 59.
B. Crazy Rich Asians
In Western societies, literary works about Chinese people usually raise the theme of their dynasty or their struggling experiences as immigrants living
overseas. Nevertheless in July 2013, Kevin Kwan publishes an entirely different kind of story about the Chinese entitled Crazy Rich Asians. The novel revolves
around three old-moneyed clans of Singaporean Chinese. The Young, Leong and Cheng families are filthy-wealthy, thereby regarded as Singaporean aristocrats.
The novel deliciously rouses on the excesses of their everyday lives, as well as their jealousies, feuds, schemes and sabotages.
The storyline follows the youths in the families, Nicholas Young and Astrid Leong. Nick invites his girlfriend, Rachel Chu, to spend a summer holiday in
Singapore since he is going to be the best-man at his best-friend’s wedding. Rachel, who originated from a modest background in Mainland China, is an
American Chinese professor who teaches in New York University. She has no idea of how ‘hot’ this summer will be because it turns out that Nick comes from
one of the wealthiest families in Asia. Her naiveté brings the readers into the excessive world that used to only exist on fantasy.
Before they even land at the Changi airport, gossips and rumors about Rachel have already spread. The biased assumptions shape a bad pre-judgment for
Eleanor Young, Nick’s calculating mother, and Shang Su Yi, Nick’s influential grandmother. They usually are not close, but to break Nick and Rachel’s
relationship they conspire together. It is because as the heir apparent to the Young’s great fortune, Nick is expected to marry a woman from the same strata.
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