The body, art and relationships in Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being And Life Is Elsewhere - USD Repository

  

THE BODY, ART AND RELATIONSHIPS IN KUNDERA’S THE

UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING AND LIFE IS ELSEWHERE

  AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

MY AMI PRIWARDHANI

  Student Number: 994214025

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2006

  A Sarjana Sas tra Undergraduate Thesis

  THE BODY, ART AND RELATIONSHIPS IN KUNDERA’S THE

UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING AND LIFE IS ELSEWHERE

  By MY AMI PRIWARDHANI

  Student Number: 994214025 Approved by

  Dr. Novita Dewi, MA (hons)

  18 September 2006 Advisor Dr. Fr.B.Alip, M.Pd., M.A

  18 September 2006 Co-Advisor

  

THE BODY, ART AND RELATIONSHIPS IN KUNDERA’S THE

UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING AND LIFE IS ELSEWHERE

  By MY AMI PRIWARDHANI

  Student Number: 994214025 Defended before the Board of Examiners

  On 31 October 2006 And Declared Acceptable

  

Board of Examiners

  Chairperson : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd.,M.A ____________________ Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum ____________________ Member : Dra. Sri Mulyani, M.A ____________________ Member : Dr. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A(Hons) ____________________ Member : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd.,M.A ____________________

  Yogyakarta, 31 October 2006 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd.,M.A

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  This thesis is not an individual work. There are many other persons with various personalities and perspectives who contributed a lot, not only in the process of writing this thesis, but also in understanding things I find in my everyday life. To these people I owe some debts and feel appropriate to thank:

  To Bapak-Ibu, who have a very big heart to understand and a willingness to listen to negotiations and bargains: that finishing this thesis and graduating are one package laid side by side with other similarly interesting package.

  To Dr. Novita Dewi, my advisor, who always has a big box of ideas, time and, of course, challenges. I do not feel like writing a thesis but competing and experimenting with ideas.

  To Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd.,M.A, my Co-advisor, for providing his time to read the first draft and contributing ideas to this thesis.

  To Father Budi Susanto, S.J. who has helped me broaden my knowledge and sharpen my understanding on things.

  To Seanna Sumalee Oakley who taught me the pleasure of reading literature. Which surpeisingly I found after four years becoming astudent of English Literature.

  To Gayl D.Ness who has worked on my English grammar and expressions anytime I wanted it. Thank you for not just being an advisor but also a friend.

  To Albertus Vembrianto who, for this past three almost four years, has been a

  To Maria Fransisca Andanti, a sister and a friend,who had given me a pair of shoes of spirit to finish writing this thesis.

  To all friends I found in Yogya: Bodong, Yoshi, Jendro, Vidi, Ucha, Reza and Dhika. You created places and spaces not only for friendships but also for different perspectives. Fenty, Ari, Dinun, Tiwi and Siska. We used to sit together in classes, to gossip in the campus alley. You guys made my college years fun. Ius, Elis, Mas Banning-Mbak Wigati, Jalu, Taru, Simbok-Kang Agoeng, Mas Prim-Mbak Dian and Lulud. There were thousand places to play around, but yours were the most interesting, adventurous, inspiring and challenging. To Ninik and Nita, with whom I have passed the merry youth years. Wiwik, Ririn, Puji, and Mbak Menik: the housemates. I passed this most different yet fortunate year of my college years in our house.

  To all friends I found in Ann Arbor: The Goslings: Mya, Pete and Linda, Jesse Johnston and Todd Wilkinson.

  And to all of those, who, with or without their awareness, have inspired me with their ideas and spirit, without which this thesis will not come into being.

  MY Ami Priwardhani

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………………..........i APPROVAL PAGE…………………………………………………………………..ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE………………………………………………………………iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………….iv TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………….vi ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………...viii ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………………...ix

  

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………1

A. Background of the Study…………………………………………………………..1 B. Problem Formulation………………………………………………………………3 C. Objectives of the Study…………………………………………………………….4

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW………………………………………..5

A. Review of Related Studies………………………………………………………...5

  1. Review of The Unbearable Lightness of Being………………………………....5

  2. Review of Life is Elsewhere……………………………………………….........7

  B. Review of Related Theories……………………………………………………......9

  1. On the Body…………………………………………………………………......9

  2. On Art………………………………………………………………………….10

  3. On Relationship……………………………………………………………………….....12

  4. Review on Czechoslovakia’s History 1948-late 1960’s……………………….13

  5. On Kundera’s Ideas about Novels……………………………………………..15

  C. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………...16

  

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY………………………………………………..18

A. Object of the Study……………………………………………………………….18 B. Approach of the Study……………………………………………………………19 C. Method of the Study……………………………………………………………....21

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS………………………………………………………...22

A. The Portrayal of Female Characters through the Body, Art and Male-Female Relationship……………………………………………………………………….22

  1. The Portrayals of Female Characters through their Body……………………..22

  a. Maman and Tereza: The Denial of the Body…………………………...... 23

  b. Sabina: The Celebration of The Body…………………………………….27

  2. The Portrayals of Female Characters through Art……………………………..30

  b. Escape……………………………………………………………………..37

  3. The Portrayals of Female Characters through their Relationship with their Opposite Sex…………………………………………………………………...40

  a. Tereza and Maman: Romantic Love……………………………………....41

  b. Sabina: Freedom…………………………………………………………..49

  B. The Portrayals of the Male Characters According to the Body, Art and Male- Female Relationship………………………………………………………………53

  1. The Portrayals of Male Characters through the Body……………………….....53

  a. The Male Obsession over Female Bodies…………………………………54

  b. The Varied Perception of the Body…………………………………….....62

  2. The Portrayals of Male Characters through Art……………………………......65

  a. A Pursuit of Imagined Reality…………………………………………….66

  b. A Search of Recognition…………………………………………………..71

  3. The Portrayals of Male Characters through Their Relationship with Their Opposite Sex…………………………………………………………………...76

  a. Self-Centered Relationship………………………………………………..76

  b. Varied Attitude Toward Sex and Love…………………………………....81

  C. The Author and His Works: A Contextual Reading……………………………...88

  

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION…………………………………………………......99

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………107

  

ABSTRACT

  MY Ami Priwardhani, 2006. The Body, Art and Male-Female Relationship: A

  

Reading on the Socio-political Context in Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness

of Being and Life is Elsewhere. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letter, Sanata

  Dharma University Milan Kundera is a Czechoslovakia-born writer whose life history is closely entangled with the country’s political upheaval. Written in different time and represented different period of Czechoslovakia’s history, The Unbearable Lightness

  of Being

  and Life is Elsewhere are his two novels which represent the author’s experience. Both novels, however, share some similarities and differences in the discussion on the body, arts and male-female relationship according to their male and female characters’ perspectives.

  There are three objectives suggested by this study. The first is to find out the portrayal of female characters through their perspective of the body, arts and male- female relationships. The second is to examine the portrayal of the male characters through the body, arts and male-female relationship. The third is to contextualize those portrayals with the author’s socio-political background.

  This study applies intertextuality as its approach. This approach suggests that the author’s depiction on his characters through the body, arts and male-female relationship can be understood by looking at the other text, namely his socio-political background.

  There are many result findings in this study. Some of the female characters deny the body and some of them celebrate it. In terms of arts, some of them escape the reality, yet all of them rebel the authority. In terms of male-female relationship, the majority of female characters are depicted as romantic, though there is one who is free. The male characters are depicted as obsessed to female body, yet at the same time they fear it. Yet, there is different attitude on female body. Some of them think that the body should be possessed as a trophy of manhood, while the other frees the body. In terms of arts, the male characters tend to pursue imagined reality. Next, in terms of male-female relationship, the male characters are self-centered. They, however, have different attitude about sex and love. One thinks that sex does not have something to do with love, while the others think the contrary. This type of characterization represents the author’s socio-political background. It is implied by the pattern of disharmony between characters which shows the author’s criticism to the communist regime in the country. The regime imposes the sameness in attitude and absolute obedience to the state. The deep exploration of each character also shows how complex human being is, which cannot be simplified by single interpretation. The author’s characterization also shows that every character in both novels is the representation of historical situation.

  

ABSTRAK

  MY Ami Priwardhani, 2006. The Body, Art and Male-Female Relationship: A

  

Reading on The Socio-political Context in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable

Lightness of Being and Life is Elsewhere. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris,

Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Milan Kundera adalah seorang pengarang yang lahir di Cekoslowakia. Karya- karyanya berkaitan erat dengan kondisi sosio-politik di negara asalnya. The Unbearable Lightness of Being dan Life is Elsewhere ditulis dalam kurun waktu berbeda dan bercerita tentang kurun sejarah yang berbeda pula. Meski demikian, ada beberapa persamaan dan perbedaan dalam kedua novel tersebut, yakni penggambaran soal tubuh, seni dan relasi laki-laki – perempuan yang diartikulasikan lewat tokoh- tokoh dalam dua novel tersebut.

  Studi ini bertujuan untuk, pertama, mengetahui bagaimana pengambaran karakter perempuan lewat persepsi mereka tentang tubuh, seni dan relasi laki-laki – perempuan. Kedua, mengetahui bagaimana penggambaran tokoh laki-laki lewat persepsi mereka tentang tubuh, seni dan relasi laki-laki- perempuan. Ketiga, untuk mengetahui bagaimana penggambaran-penggambaran itu terkait dengan konteks sosio-politik pengarangnya.

  Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan intertekstualitas. Pendekatan ini melihat bahwa penggambaran para tokoh tentang tubuh, seni dan relasi laki-laki – perempuan dapat dipahami dengan cara melihat ‘teks’ lain, yaitu konteks sosio-politik pengarangnya.

  Ada beberapa poin penting yang ditemukan lewat studi ini. Beberapa tokoh perempuan menolak tubuh mereka dan beberapa merayakannya. Sebagian tokoh perempuan menggunakan seni untuk melarikan diri dari kenyataan hidup mereka, namun semua tokoh perempuan juga menggunakan seni sebagai medium pemberontakan terhadap tatanan masyarakatnya. Dalam hal relasi laki-laki – perempuan, sebagian dari mereka sangat romantik dan cenderung terikat dengan pasangan hidup mereka. Namun ada juga yang bebas. Tokoh laki-laki digambarkan terobsesi atas tubuh perempuan. Akan tetapi, pada saat yang sama, mereka takut akan tubuh perempuan. Tokoh laki-laki cenderung menggunakan seni untuk mengejar realitas imajiner. Soal relasi-laki-laki – perempuan, tokoh laki-laki digambarkan punya persamaan: mereka cenderung egois. Tetapi ada perbedaan dalam memandang seks dan cinta: sebagian menganggap seks ada karena cinta, sebagian beranggapan pengarangnya. Ketidakcocokan pendapat antar tokoh-tokoh dalam dua novel ini menggambarkan kritik pengarang atas situasi di Ceko pada waktu itu. Rejim komunis di negara itu memaksakan sikap patuh dan keseragaman pendapat pada warganya. Penokohan yang dalam juga menggambarkan betapa kompleks manusia sebenarnya. Kompleksitas itu tidak bisa disederhanakan hanya dengan interpretasi tunggal. Para tokoh juga digambarkan sebagai sebuah representasi situasi sejarah pada masa itu.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Milan Kundera is an émigré Czech author whose works are known to have

  

sociopolitical values. He emigrated to France amidst prosecutions and purges of the

Communist government in Czechoslovakia after a popular movement demanding more

freedom in the country in 1968. Kundera was one of those who supported the movement, as

well as one of those who participated in the massive exodus out of the Communist-raided

country. Since then, he has written in France; most of his books have been about

Czechoslovakia.

  It is Kundera’s success as an internationally-known writer that has made him a

controversial figure. Respected and adored, he was mentioned in the memoir of Vaclav

Havel, the recent president of Czechoslovakia, who was elected after the Communist’s fall.

People also consider Kundera’s works classic, together with those of European writers such

as Franz Kafka. Given that the subject of his writings raised controversy among his

colleagues in Czechoslovakia, some said that Kundera wrote as if he were not a Communist

before. Others proposed that his idea of looking at the experience of Czechoslovakia was too

black and white; arguing that what he wrote was what the West wanted to hear about such

life experience (Havel. 1990:171).

  With such a background, it is interesting to study Milan Kundera’s works, because

what every author attempts to write is one piece of opinion about the world. Besides, what

  

Kundera writes, or what every author writes, has universal value which can be grasped out of

the boundary of time and place.

  Thus, this study attempts to analyze two of Kundera’s novels, The Unbearable

Lightness of Being and Life is Elsewhere and then to contextualize them with Kundera’s

experience as an individual and author who lived in Czechoslovakia at a certain historical

time. The first novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is set during the period of the

Communist reformation and the post Russian invasion in 1968. The second one is set at the

emergence of Communism in Czechoslovakia after the World War II.

  The Unbearable Lightness of Being is basically a love story of its four main

characters, blended with a rich historical background that influences each character’s

decision. Life is Elsewhere is also a story of relationship, this time, between a son and his

mother. Like the first one, this novel also uses historical situation as the main anchor of the

character’s action.

  Eventhough both novels reveal different settings and stories, they share some

common topics, e.g. ideas on the body, art, and male-female relationships. These topics of the

body, art and male-female relationship become the instrument to know how Kundera

characterizes his characters. Each character in both novels has her/his restlessness about

her/his own body or that of others. Some have inferiority complex, since they do not posses

physical beauty. Some question their identity through their body. Art becomes an important

topic because every character is described to have intimacy of some kind with art. Some of

them are producers of art (artists), some of them are interested in art as part of their

consumptions. Male and female relationship becomes the tie that binds the stories. The

character’s relationship with his/her opposite sex is the context through which the stories are

  

told. Not all characters have successful relationship with his/her opposite sex, since each of

them has his/her own opinion on relationship.

  Further, it is also tempting to compare and contrast male and female characters’ point

of view toward those three topics. It seems that Kundera’s portrayals of his characters are

mapped into a certain general pattern. In terms of male-female relationship, some characters

can be categorized as dependent and romantic. Some other is much more free and not

demanding. There are also characters who are in the tension between one category and the

other.

  Every work of art reflects the spirit of the era when it was written or the life

experience of the author. So it is with The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Life is

Elsewhere . One cannot avoid comparing Milan Kundera’s life experience with some

particular setting in the books, or some ideas, or characters. In other words, Kundera’s life

attitude is packed in the two novels. Contextualization, in this study, is not merely comparing

the ‘coincidences’ of the author real life and the events in the novels. Yet, it is much more on

the process of understanding what Kundera thinks about one certain time in history, which,

coincidently, happened in Czechoslovakia. Thus, the next task of this study is finding out

what such portrayals of the characters say about Milan Kundera’s own views on time and

place he used to live?

B. Problem Formulation

  To work on the topic presented above, the problems are formulated as follows: 1) How do The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Life is Elsewhere portray the female characters’ perception on the body, art and male-female relationship?

  2) How do The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Life is Elsewhere portray the male character’s perception on the body, art and male-female relationship?

3) How are these portrayals contextualized with the author’s sociopolitical background?

C. Objective of the Study

  This study aims at identifying the portrayals of the male and female characters’

through their perception on the body, art and male-female relationship in The Unbearable

Lightness of Being and Life is Elsewhere. In the end, this study also attempts to see how those

portrayals are influenced by the author’s sociopolitical background.

CHAPTER II THEORICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies

1 Reviews of The Unbearable Lightness of Being

  Being the mark of Kundera’s peak of literary career, The Unbearable Lightness of

Being has been studied by many critics. Most of them study Kundera’s reflection on the

philosophical theme of the novel, namely, the concept of lightness and weight, which is

generated from Nietzsche’s idea on eternal return. Petra von Morstein, for example, argues

that the idea of the eternal return is represented in the fate of the two protagonists in the

novel, Tomas and Tereza, and in the nature of their relationship. According to Morstein,

eternal return is an idea that everything in human life will occur and re-occur again. Not a

scientific idea as it cannot be proved as truth; yet, Morstein argues, it expresses “existential

awareness, what it feels like to be human” (Morstein, 1989:65). Those who accept the idea

of the eternal return will feel the greatest weight, a burden to see that every pain will be

always painful. While those who deny it, will live in lightness, that everything only occurs

once, and moving to other circumstances, as if the previous is insignificant. Further, Mostein

suggests that without eternal return, every moment is a coincidence, while in eternal return

“chance is immediately transformed into necessity. Every moment is necessary. As every

occurrence in life encompasses the totality of history…the idea of eternal return holds the

integration of every experience with every other, of living in total harmony with oneself, as

being interconnected with all history”(Morstein, 1989:69). In this harmony, individual will

  

live in complete way, and not ‘fall apart’. The character in the novel expressing lightness is

Tomas. Yet, his feeling to Tereza cannot be explained with this concept, for he is in love with

her, which is out of his concern as a womanizer. Tomas, according to Morstein, “experiences

the disconnection of lived experience and rational reflection”(Morstein, 1989:72). Tereza, on

the other hand, is the representation of weight, in her acceptance of eternal return. Therefore,

she accepts her life fully. Such acceptance is different from passive acceptance. Tereza’s is

different, since she has ‘the vision of reality’, which enables her to live ‘down to earth’

(Morstein, 1989; 74). Tomas finally accepts the weight, which is expressed by the final scene

of his togetherness with Tereza. At the end of the novel, so Morstein argues, Tomas finally

“develop[s] the ability to accept her as his fate” (Morstein,1989:75).

  Other critic, Italo Calvino, also states that the opposition of light-weight becomes one

of the main topics in Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Quite different from

Morstein, Calvino tends to give credit to lightness as the main message of the novel: “ In

reality, this novel is dedicated to lightness speaks to us above all of constraint; the web of

public and private constraints that envelops people that exercises its weight over every human

relationship” (Calvino, 1989:55). Calvino defines lightness as “…that which is opposed to

irrevocability, to exclusive univocity” (Calvino, 1989: 54). He argues that this notion of

lightness is expressed in many aspects of the novel, such as the description of motivations of

the characters’ deeds, which he considers ‘light’, for example, the Don Juanism (expressed in

Tomas) which is motivated either by seeking an ideal woman or ‘a universal knowledge in

diversity’.

  Francois Ricard studies the idyll (state of beauty) represented in each character in

The Unbearable Lightness of Being , and relates it with Kundera’s experience in living under

  

the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. According to Ricard, every character in the novel

bears the longing for idyll. There are two categories of idyll presented: innocent idyll and

idyll of experience. Innocent idyll expresses the abolition of individual and the rejection of

the limits including morality and norms. The idyll of experience is the anti-idyll itself. It

transcends the innocent idyll which often prefers ‘the world beyond’ to ‘the world down

here’ (Ricard, 1989:21). Furthermore, Ricard argues that the idylls are particularly the result

of Kundera’s experience with Communism.

  While the critics above try to balance out the idea of lightness and weight in The

Unbearable Lightness of Being, this study is different. It is much closer to what Ricard does.

If Ricard studies the relatedness between Kundera’s life experience and one aspect of the

novel, e.g. idyll, this study is the expansion of what Ricard has done. This study particularly

will explore Kundera’s depiction on his characters trough the body, arts and male-female

relationship and contextualize it with his experience and ideas. Thus, this study will explore

more the notion of relatedness between Kundera’s works and his life experience through

other aspects of the novel, which are the body, arts and male-female relationship.

2 Reviews of Life is Elsewhere

  Life is Elsewhere has received rather hard criticisms compared to The Unbearable

Lightness of Being , which is considered as one of Kundera’s most brilliant novels by the

Western critics. Some of the critics I mention later consider that Life is Elsewhere does not

receive critical claims as other Kundera’s classic such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being

and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting do. Dan Schneider states that Life is Elsewhere is

not well built through the element of fictions. One example he mentions is the

  

characterization of Jaromil, the main protagonist, which, according to him, has lack of

“core…in which makes Jaromil tick. He is just, in essence, a poet so that Kundera can have

him claim he’s a poet…” Furthermore, Schneider also states that by this lack of

characterization, Kundera does not want to deliver a story, but to make a statement about art,

which is implied in the novel by the allusions to other lyrical poets such as Rimbaud, Byron

and Shelley who are juxtaposed with Jaromil’s experience.

(http://www.cosmoetica.com/B268-DES208.htm, accessed on April 15, 2006) Paul Theroux, in his review of Life is Elsewhere published by The New York Times

Book Review on July 28, 1974, argues that the novel bears Kundera’s main political statement

“that in a society with strict rules a poet risks betraying his lyricism” Kundera compares

Jaromil’s life with those of the lyrical poet such as Rimbaud. Yet, as Theroux argued,

Kundera puts him at the point of the most ‘irresponsible’ character, by describing him

sacrificing his girlfriend’s happiness to serve his idealism. Furthermore, Theroux argues that

Kundera’s criticism on the lyrical attitude does not work that well, since ‘it looks too much as

if Kundera is shooting a clumsy fish in a very small barrel. And it is not a very convincing

rebuttal of the heroics of Byron and Shelley or the poetic mind in general. It is particularizing

of an isolated case of perversity--metrical feet shod with jackboots. It does put one in mind of

that…the whole tradition of Soviet writing which, as Nabokov once remarked, has about it

"the smell of the prison library." By making Jaromil a partisan he makes him insignificant as

poet.’ (http://www.nytimes.com/books/74/07/28/special/kundera, accessed on April 15,

2006)

  Those studies have discussed both novels as separate entities. This study, on the other

hand, attempts to examine the two novels in terms of comparison and contrast to see whether

  

there is a certain tendency, recurring motif in the depiction of characters through the body,

arts, and male-female relationship. In addition, this study also seeks to contextualize the

repetition with Kundera’s political background as an author and a person.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. On the Body

  The theory on the body elaborated in this thesis is limited to the idea on the

repression of the body. Anthony Synnot states that the repression of the body has been rooted

in the philosophical discourse for long time, since the era of Greek philosophers. The mind-

body dualism, for example, has diminished the role of the body by stating that mind is

supreme since it generates pure knowledge (Synnot, 2003: 24-55). Similarly, Christianity

formerly assumes that the body is a prison of the soul. Its materiality is considered disgusting

and impure. This argument is also restated by Daniel Cavallaro in his book The Body for

Beginner (Cavallaro. 1998,24-26). Cavallaro also argues that, in the modern time, the

repression of the body still exists in the form of morality, religion and scientific law, which

‘endeavored to make the body weak and impotent by teaching us to be humble, obedient and

servile” (Cavallaro, 1998: 65). Furthermore, he states that civilization represses the body in a

way that it reinforces instincts as shameful.

  According to Synnot, the history of the body has shown the negation of this

repression that raised the idea of the existential body. The basic idea of the existential body is

negating the mind as the constituent of self-identity. Meanwhile, the body plays a big part in

determining one’s identity (Synnot, 2003:64). Cavallaro also states the same idea on the

  

admittance of the body as the constituent of self through his discussion of Nietzsche’s

philosophical argument on the body. The thought and abstract concepts are also part of

biological process. Thus the body cannot be neglected or denied (Cavallaro, 2001:46).

  Another theory on the body applied in this thesis is the theory of looking as a form of

power. Cavallaro states that the act of gazing is not simply that of looking. He says “the gaze

probes and masters. It penetrates the body and bounds it as a passive object. The gaze

objectifies the body” (Cavallaro, 2001:115). In other words, the act of looking presumes the

imbalance of power between the looked and the looker. The gaze also deals with sexual

pleasure. Through the act of looking, the looker gained sexual pleasure from the looked at.

What I will present in this analysis is voyeurism, which Cavallaro defines as the excitement

gained from looking at body’s nudity or engaged in a sexual intercourse.

2. On Art

  The theory of art elaborated in this thesis deals with the function of art as an escape

and a medium of revolt. Art as an escape is discussed by Arthur Koestler. He argues that one

quality of arts is to provide an outlet for temporary escape from routine. The aesthetic

experience enables one to distract him/her from his/her own self-interest and direct to the

other realities happened on stage, for example. This distraction creates a distance which gives

a short consolation. In addition, aesthetic experience also produces catharsis which,

according to Koestler, has two elements: first, the distraction from self-interest occupation

and second, to create an outlet which may result on peacefulness. Moreover, Koestler gives

emphasize on the meaning of peacefulness, which does not mean settling the problem nor

ending up with happiness, but ‘the ‘earthing’ of an individual tragedy in the universal tragedy

of human condition […]’(Koestler, 1970:307).

  Beside the theory of catharsis as a form of escape, Koestler also mentions

identification as a form of escape. Identification means the involvement of the audience’s

emotion in what the work of art communicates. The involvement makes the audience enter

into an illusion, which also makes the audience come out their self interest. In Koestler’s

words, “it enables the spectator to transcend the narrow confines of his personal identity, and

to participate in another form of existence.” (Koestler, 1970: 308-309).

  Other function of art which I elaborate in this thesis is arts as a form of revolt. Camus

argues that art in its basic sense is a revolt. Art goes beyond what human beings are able to

do in the real world. It becomes the correction to what happens in reality. Imagination in arts,

thus, is a correction to what human being experiences in everyday life Arts explore other

possibilities or other existences that impossible to happen in the real world. However, arts do

not flee from reality. It refuses reality but it does not completely detach from it.

  Camus particularly discusses the revolt in novels. He states that novel was born in the

spirit of criticism. Even the reality in the novel is not far from real everyday life, its sadness

also belong to our sadness, but in the novel fate becomes absolute and certain, that the

characters go to end the journey to find his/her death. It is, Camus argued, contradictory with

our fate which is still uncertain. Thus, novel competes with God. In this sense, the revolt of

the novel lies (Camus, 1998:22).

  This study will particularly deal with art as means to escape from daily routine yet it

provides catharsis: a relief after merging one’s suffering with that performed in arts. In

addition, this study will employ art as medium of revolt toward reality. Arts question reality.

3. On Relationship

  I will elaborate Anthony Giddens’s idea of relationship in this thesis. Through The

Transformation of Intimacy , Giddens traces the form of relationship in the modern era. I will

only elaborate some small parts of his ideas, since it is relevant with the discussion of male-

female relationship. One of Giddens’s arguments is the presence of romantic love. In

romantic love, Giddens argues, sublime love has more place rather than sexual

accomplishment. It, however, does not mean that romantic love denies sexuality. Sexuality

does exist in such kind of love, yet its portion does not go beyond the sublime love.

  Romantic love also deals with instant attraction, ‘love at the first sight’ and the

involvement of the feeling of beauty and joy of love. In consequence, romantic love is

monogamous. The person involved in the romantic love tends to project their own future on

the relationship. There is a sense of fixing, that the relationship will lead the person into a

better future (Giddens, 1992:38-47).

  The opposite of this romantic love is confluent love, which means conditioned love.

In this kind of love, there is a tendency to banish the idea of ‘forever and ever love’ and ‘one

and only’ which is often seen in romantic love (Giddens, 1992: 62). Love, in confluent love,

grows to the degree where each person in the relationship is ready and able to concern. In

consequence, this relationship is not sexually monogamous. Sexual exclusiveness is agreed to