Sexual revolution as reflected in the character of inge in angelika fremd`s heartland - USD Repository
SEXUAL REVOLUTION AS REFLECTED IN THE CHARACTER OF INGE IN ANGELIKA FREMD’S HEARTLAND
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
PRAMUDYA WISNU WIJAYA
Student Number: 014214062 Student Registration Number: 010051120106120062
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008
.
In endless rain I've been walking
Like a poet feeling pain
Trying to find the answers
Trying to hide the tears
But it was just a circle
That never ends
When the rain stops, I'll turn the page
The page of the first chapter
[…]
I see red
I see blue
But the silver lining gradually takes over
When the morning begins
I'll be in the next chapter
Yoshiki/X-Japan ”The LastSong”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For the things that words cannot say, I thank the Father, the living longhaired Lord, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, and the Holly Spirit, and Mother Mary too.
With the love, respect, and apology, my gratitude goes to my beloved parents for bringing me to life and showing me what life is. I also thank my beloved little sister, who sometimes is also my older sister.
As this undergraduate thesis is about women and life, I would like to thank all women in the world, especially the ones in my past for introducing me to the inexplicable thing called love, and for making me flown with fantasy and drown in lunacy, for inspiring my life.
I would also like to thank Maria Ananta Tri Suryandari, S.S., M.Ed., my thesis and academic advisor, and Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. as the co-advisor for their guidance and motivation. I think I cannot make it without them.
A big gratitude is for my friends in English Letters of Sanata Dharma University, especially all of 2001 folks. It goes to Imbix, Prima, Endra, Bimo, Ayu, Lilik, Obed, the Dians, Fangki, Niko, Risa, Bola, Kardiman, Yoseph, Vava, Ian, Sinda, Geri, Nyoto, and those who have left me behind and those who are still with me in the struggle. I also thank my Rock n’ Rollin’ buddies in Prisoners; Tata, Ezer. Iwan, Petruck, Melki, Profit, Prust, Yudi. I also thank my “konco selawe taun”; Sukma Hengky, Rosa, , Hendro, Alis and all of Antiokh crew. I thank them all for the true friendship they have given to me and for all the moment we have been through together. Thanks for the memory.
Last, but certainly not least, I thank all English Letters’ lecturers and staffs, Mbak Ninik, canteen staff; library staffs, and the ‘ponytail’ in the library.
Pramudya Wisnu Wijaya
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………….. i APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………. ii BOARD OF EXAMINERS ……………………………………………… iii MOTTO PAGE…………………………………………………………… iv APPROVAL OF THE THESIS PUBLICATION FOR ACADEMICAL PURPOSE………………………………………... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………… vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………. viii ABSTRACT …………….………………………………………………. ix ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………. x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study …………………………………… 1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………….. 4 C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………….. 5 D. Definition of Terms …………………………………………. 5 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………….
8 B. Review of Related Theories ………………………………..
10 Theories on Character and Characterization …………….... 10 The Second Wave Feminism ……………………………… 12 The Interrelation between Literature, Second-Wave Feminism, and Sexual Revolution……………………………………... 19 Theory of Sexual Revolution ……………………………… 20
C. Theoretical Framework …………………………………….. 26
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study ………………………………………… 28 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………..
29 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………….. 30
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. Inge’s Life Experience as One of the ‘Women in Heartland ‘. 32 B. The Sexual Revolution …...…………………………………. 51
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ……………………………………... 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………….. 65ABSTRACT
PRAMUDYA WISNU WIJAYA. Sexual Revolution as Reflected in the
Character of Inge in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland. Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.Angelika Fremd’s Heartland is a literary work that pictures depressing life in Australia post First World War. The novel stands for women and the struggles within women’s life. Heartland is a place where patriarchy has rooted deeply, and the domesticity is the place where sexual coercion happens. Nevertheless, the constructed circumstance directs the women to the concept of acceptance and self denial. In the novel, the reader can notify the dehumanization, the sexual objectifications toward women, as this novel is illustrated with several explicit sexual actions. Inge Heinreich, the major character is one of those women of
Heartland. As a growing woman, she herself experiences the coercions. She is a
product of the circumstance. But solely, she attempts to break down the determination. Inge represents the ideas of the second wave of feminism which utters the right for women to determine their sexuality in its major campaign. An idea of sexual revolution is provided here.
The writer intends to present a deep discussion on the sexual revolution reflected in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland through this undergraduate thesis. Firstly, the writer tries to find out the major character’s characterization through her experience and life as a woman in Heartland. Thus, the writer understands how the women in Heartland occupy sexual objectification and victimization from the patriarchy. Finally, the writer tries to see the major character’s resistance to overcome the objectification and victimization, the major character’s sexual revolution.
This undergraduate thesis is using feminist approach. Generally, feminist approach is really helpful for the writer to understand more about women and what in women’s mind is, since the writer is a man. The writer analyzes the novel based on feminist’s perspective because the novel is about women in facing the hardship of life.
The second wave of feminism brings the learning on how women lose the genuine identity as human being. The dependence of women on men is the concept the patriarchy tries to maintain and the basic strand the feminists try to resist. In this mentality, women lose the right to the most personal mater as about their sexuality, since their sexuality is determined to please men and not for their own to determine. The ‘reducing women into instrument for men’s sexual pleasure’ occurs. Through the analysis, the writer sees a clear depiction of the case in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland. The feminists attempt to gain the sexual freedom for women. Sexual revolution is a necessary. In the novel of Heartland, the character of Inge Heinrich reflects the struggle. She learns from the experience and the life, and becomes able to determine her own sexuality. She deliberately loses her virginity. This is her statement as a woman; that no one has the right for it, not Karl or the other men represented in the story, but she herself.
ABSTRAK
PRAMUDYA WISNU WIJAYA. Sexual Revolution as Reflected in the
Character of Inge in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.Heartland oleh Angelika Fremd adalah sebuah karya sastra yang
menggambarkan kehidupan yang penuh tekanan di Australia pasca perang dunia pertama. Novel ini adalah tentang wanita dan perjuangan dalam hidup. Heartland adalah sebuah tempat dimana patriarki telah dalam berakar, dimana kekerasan seksual dalam rumah tangga terjadi. Sayang sekali, kondisi yang telah terbangun menggiring wanita-wanita dalam novel ini pada sebuah konsep penerimaan dan penyangkalan diri. Dalam novel ini, para pembaca akan menjumpai dehumanisasi, objektifikasi seksual terhadap kaum perempuan, sebagaimana novel ini dipenuhi ilustrasi aksi seksual. Inge Heinrich, si karakter utama, adalah salah satu dari wanita-wanita di Heartland tersebut. Sebagai wanita yang sedang tumbuh, ia mengalami sendiri kekerasan-kekerasan itu. Dia adalah produk dari keadaan tersebut. Tetapi seorang diri ia mencoba membalikkan keadaan. Inge merepresentasikan pemikiran-pemikiran dari gelombang kedua feminisme yang mengutarakan hak- hak seksualitas kaum perempuan. Gagasan tentang revolusi seksual tercantum di sini.
Penulis bermaksud menyajikan diskusi mendalam tentang revolusi seksual yang tercermin dalam karya Heartland oleh Angelika Fremd melalui tesis ini. Pertama, penulis mencoba mempelajari karakterisasi tokoh utama lewat pengalaman dan kehidupannya. Dari sana, penulis mengerti bagaimana wanita- wanita di Heartland mengalami objektifikasi dan viktimisasi oleh patriarki. Dan terakhir, penulis mencoba melihat perlawanan karakter tersebut terhadap objektifikasi dan viktimisasi; revolusi seksual dari si karakter utama.
Tesis ini menggunakan pendekatan feminis. Secara umum, ini sangat membantu penulis untuk lebih mengerti tentang wanita, dan apa yang ada dalam benak wanita, karana si penulis adalah seorang pria. Penulis melakukan analisis berdasar pada sudut pandang feminis karena novel ini bercerita tentang wanita dalam menghadapi kerasnya kehidupan.
Feminisme gelombang kedua menghadirkan sebuah pembelajaran mengenai bagaimana wanita kehilangan identitas sejatinya sebagai manusia. Kebergantungan wanita terhadap pria adalah konsep yang dipertahankan oleh patriarki, dan ditentang oleh para feminis. Karena dalam mentalitas seperti ini, wanita kehilangan haknya terhadap hal paling personal yaitu seksualitasnya, karena seksualitas wanita adalah untuk pria, dan bukan untuk dirinya sendiri untuk ia tentukan. Penurunan harkat wanita sebagi alat pemuas seksual pria terjadi. Melalui analisis yang dilakukan, gambaran jelas tentang kasus ini terlihat dalam Heartland karya Angelika Fremd. Feminis mencoba mencari solusi bagi kebebasan seksual kaum wanita. Revolusi seksual adalah sebuah kebutuhan. Dalam novel Heartland, karakter Inge mencerminkan usaha tersebut. Dia belajar dari pengalaman dan hidup, dan menjadi mampu utuk menentukan arah seksualitasnya sendiri. Dia melepaskan keperawananya atas kemauannya sendiri. Ini adalah pernyataanya sebagi seorang wanita; bahwa tak seorangpun berhak atasnya, tidak Karl ataupun tokoh laki-laki lain dalam cerita ini, tetapi dirinya sendiri.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study In Theory of Literature, Rene Wellek and Austin Warren declare:
“Literature is a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation” (1956: 94). In accordance, Georg Lukacs states that work of literature has great social power. It depicts the human being directly and with the full richness of his inward and outward life. It is capable to portray the contradictions, struggles, and conflicts of social life in the same way as these appear in the mind and actual life of human beings (Lukacs, 1980: 143). Definitely, literature already becomes a reflection of the changes, the struggles, the revolutions that happen in the long way history of society.
In resemblance to literature as the portrayal, revolution also means to seek a fundamental construction through comprehensive changes for a better life.
Through the social changes, literature and revolution have their way to mingle each other, as asserted in David Bevan’s Literature and Revolution.
Like literature itself revolution also seeks, fundamentally, to construct another, better, more meaningful and more beautiful world, to effect an almost alchemical metamorphosis (Bevan, 1989: 4). In this subject, feminism comes reliably to the matter, since the study is about the struggle revolting against sex roles dictated by the society, whereas it used to be related with gender and the patriarchal system, in which women are considered for having lower status than the men (Bressler, 1994:183).
2 In literary criticism, feminism and literature are in the area that cannot be separated. Better condition for women is the actual thing the feminist does seek. It is never a simple way to come across this condition, and literature is just the medium. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism mentions that the interrelation of sexual ideology and culture is addressed as a fundamental condition of literary form (Humm, 1994: 22). Therefore, literature becomes one media of the feminist impact. From the ideology of feminism, Lisa Maria Hogeland also states that fiction becomes the arena, for what is called with Sexual Revolution (1998: 54).
The second wave of feminism (re-) introduces and realizes the so-called Sexual Revolution. Barbara Ehrenreich defines sexual revolution as women’s equal sexual freedoms as men (1986:108). Talking about sexual revolution, Jane Gerhard, in Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of Twentieth-Century
American Sexual Thought , points out the liberated view that sees the issue echoes
to women’s genital affair. She figures out that the sexual revolution does not only overwhelm the provision of gender equality but also includes equalization for women in treating their genital sexuality (2001: 208).
Nevertheless, some early commentators included such writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna Saint Vincent Millay, and Ernest Hemingway, believed that the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was factually the second sexual revolution; the first one having taken place in the period after the end of World War I. <http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/sexual_revolution.htmlglbtq>.
3 However, the issue of sexual revolution, the second-wave period of feminism brings, also remains as a controversy among the feminists themselves; when different representatives of feminists viewed sex and sexuality as central to both women’s oppression and women’s liberation (Humm, 1990: 208). An Australian feminist writer, Germaine Greer, provoked the controversy with her best-selling The Female Eunuch (1970). In the book she advocated sexual freedom for women and criticized the institutions of marriage and the nuclear family. (“Feminism.” Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.)
There is another predicament. There are notes that media insist in the misconception of sexual revolution (Macpherson, 1998: 2). Therefore, in the popular conception, sexual revolution means sexual permissiveness. Yet, the feminists are about to counter against this conception of permissiveness, which used to be associated with sexual exploitation and sexual politics as a product of patriarchal system.
The feminist vocabulary of sexual exploitation and sexual politics was ambiguous because of its ostensible association with the Sexual Revolution, which in popular mind meant sexual permissiveness. And if anything feminist were against that kind of permissiveness and their political analysis went well beyond that of sexuality all the way to patriarchy as an all encompassing system of gender oppression (Lauret, 1994:57). Of course this circumstance is contradictory to what Lauret asserts as women’s sexual revolution derived from women’s liberation (1994: 54).
Still, novels, then, can be used to examine the authentic perspective of women’s desire (Macpherson, 1998: 93), rather than to be misunderstood (1998:
4 2). When studying English Social Structure, the writer found the term ‘Sexual Revolution’ along side the social movements in the 60’s on the third chapter “The Rebirth of Feminism” of the book entitled Road to Equality: American Women since 1962.
By 1969, in contrast, rules had become synonymous with fascism. […] a new sexual revolution had swept the country, accompanied by wide spread experimentation with drugs at the legendary rock festival at Woodstock (Chafe, 1994: 47).
Then, when studying English Prose the writer was encountered with a novel that positively contained a reflection of the sexual revolution, from women, feminist’s point of view. That was how the writer brought up these elements into the topic of the thesis.
Therefore, it is how Angelika Fremd’s Heartland is worth studying. Upholding the discussion, the novel portrays the sexual revolution through and from women’s, feminists’ perspective, which can be seen in the character of Inge Heinrich. The novel of Heartland itself tells about Inge, the major character; a girl who grows up into a woman, who wants to be free from all the prejudices surrounding her life, and from her stepfather and other men who try to use her as a sexual object. But deliberately, she loses her virginity. This becomes the state point of the thesis on how Inge, as a woman, defines and treats her sexuality as a constituent for her self-identity.
Significantly, in further discussion, it is surely needed certain analysis to figure out how the character of Inge restrains and defines her sexual revolution.
This study will also discuss about the main character of the story and reveal as how The Dictionary of Feminist Theory mentions sexual revolution as a positive
5 advance for women, because it enables woman to take their own genital sexual needs seriously, which is a necessary component of self- identity (Humm, 1990: 208). Even though, as another worth-discussing point of the novel, Heartland was not written during the second-wave of feminism.
B. Problem Formulation
1. What is Inge’s life experience as a woman within the frame of patriarchal culture in Heartland?
2. How does the character of Inge in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland define her sexual revolution?
C. Objective of the study There are many arguments in the society on the sexual revolution.
Therefore, this study is just purposed, to give one more reference for literary study. This study is directed to reveal the idea of sexual revolution in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland, considering that the novel is given a portrayal of a leading strong women character. As how it gains the objectives, by some analysis, it tries to see the sexual revolution from the second-wave feminist criticisms and perspectives reflected in the major character of the novel. And this is the major thing of the thesis, whereas Heartland itself was originally written after the second-wave.
Therefore, to see deeper on the characters development, it seems to be crucial to analyze the character as is depicted. As featured in the problem
6 formulations, the writer tries to find out how the character of Inge in Fremd’s Heartland discovers her sexual revolution.
And finally, it will come to the final conclusion. It shows how the characters end up with their attainment. As this study’s objective, it explains what sexual revolution belongs to this character.
D. Definition of Terms
There are some definition on the terminologies used in this study in order to avoid confusion and differences in understanding about certain terms in this thesis:
1. Sex and Sexuality: Sex refers to the male and female duality of biology and reproduction; the anatomical features. The developed implication of sexuality is about human sexual perception, about sexual activities and practices, as Gerhard says:
In humans, "sex" is often perceived as a dichotomous state or identity for most biological and social purposes - such that a person can only be female or male. But many factors, including one's biology, environment, psychology and social context, have a role in determining how particular people, and those around them, view their sex. Although the table below shows common differences between males and females, many people do not correspond to "male" or "female" with regard to every criterion (2001: 207).
2. Second-wave The terms point to the period of feminist activity beginning in the early
1960s and lasting through the late 1980s, since the first-wave took place in United
7 Kingdom and the United States during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, and the third wave of feminism began in the early 1990s. (“Feminism.”
Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation,
2005).3. Women’s liberation movement or women’s movement The movement that combined liberal, rights-based concerns for equality between women and men with demands for a woman’s right to determine her own identity and sexuality. These two strands of ideology were represented and established between 1970 and 1978 (Shelden&Widowson, 1997: 129).
4. Sexual Revolution Generally, Australian Humanities Review descripts it as: The term sexual revolution, as we usually employ it, refers to a wide range of social and discursive changes associated with sexual practices, attitudes towards sexuality, formations of gender and so on, that take place in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Specific instances of the phenomena commonly collected together under the rubric of sexual revolution are diverse and might include: the rise of the gay and lesbian rights movement; the development of an unprecedented female sexual autonomy (however compromised by persisting subtle and not-so-subtle forms of patriarchal control); the mainstreaming of pornography; and so on (Davidson, 2006). However, to be underlined, the terms of sexual revolution this thesis uses, refers to “women’s sexual revolution” that is created from the junctures and disjunctures between women’s liberation and changing discourse about women sexuality in women’s liberation movement (Hogeland, 1994: 54).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The writer’s objective is to figure out the idea of sexual revolution inside
the literary works to gain deeper understanding, that this undergraduate thesis will show how Angelika Fremd’s becomes the reflection of the feminist’s ideology.
Therefore, it is necessary to observe some studies on the novel that were already written.
A review on the literary work by ‘Kings Cross’ literary magazine (1997) sees Heartland as a sensitively drawn and haunting tale of Inge Heinrich's coming of age as a German migrant in postwar Australia. As Inge matures, she struggles for her share of love and protection in a hostile society by becoming a flirt, but is rapidly entangled in relationships that turn sour and dangerous. Inge and her family, meanwhile, are drawn increasingly into a painful awareness of the effects of war, displacement, and the legacy of Nazi Germany on their lives and national identities. Fraught with the complexities of growing up in a strange land the problems of an emergent sexuality, the compelling story of Inge Heinrich is richly illuminated with insight and humour.
<www.nswwriterscentre.org.au/bookproject.html> Another critic attempts to compare the work of Angelika Fremd's
Heartland with Sigrid Nunez's A Feather on the Breath of God. It is said as
German mothers, new world daughters: Angelika Fremd's Heartland and Sigrid
9
Nunez's A Feather on the Breath of God . The study sees the feminism in the works in the issue of mother-daughter relationship.
There are also two undergraduate theses done on the novel. The first is entitled Inge’s Revolt Against Patriarchal Society in Angelika Fremd’s Heartland written by Micael Bosco Kellen, and the second is Searching for Woman
Existence As Seen in Inge’s Character: A Feminist Reading on Fremd’s Heartland by Betty Andriany. Both work on feminism as the topic. Bosco
Kellen’s undergraduate thesis focuses on the struggle against the patriarchy, while Andriany’s sees Inge as a liberal feminist.
In more specific term, both works are concerned in the issues of gender. It is how this thesis becomes a complementary for both previous works. This undergraduate thesis sees the term sexuality as not only overwhelms the provision of gender equality, but also includes equalization for women in treating their genital sexuality. Over more, “Feminisms” is more properly used than “Feminism” of the plurality acknowledged for the diversity of motivation, method, and experience (Warhol & Herndl, 1997). Thus surely, the theories on feminism applied in this undergraduate thesis are totally different from the previous ones.
The writer sees Angelica Fremd’s work, Heartland, as the story that reveals about how women deal with their feminism thought that then it is recognized as the sexual revolution. Those reviews on the work become the guidance for the writer. They also functions as the references to develop this undergraduate thesis.
10
B. Review of Related Theories
In this study, the writer will focus on the description of Inge’s characterization in Fremd’s Heartland and how this character defines the sexual revolution. The writer takes the topic of women’s sexual revolution that is reliable with the second wave feminism, therefore the writer uses the feminist approach or more specifically the second wave feminist criticism and theory, and the theory of character and characterization for the analysis.
1.a Theories on Character and Characterization
Abrams, in A Glossary of Literature Terms, states that character is the person who appears in dramatic or narrative work that has both moral and dispositional qualities. Those kinds of qualities can be seen through his action and speech constitutes his motivation Moreover Abrams adds that character is “the person presented in a dramatic work, which is interpreted by readers as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional of qualities that are expressed in what they say in the dialogue, and do in the action” (1981: 20-23).
According to Little in Approach to Literature, character can be studied from the basic characteristic. These can be seen from the physical condition of the character, how the characters appear including his/ her age. As asserted in the book, what is meant by “the appearance” is how he/ she is seen from various points of view. This includes: How the character sees his/ herself, and also how various other characters see him or her. In so far, it includes how she/ he develops or frails to develop during the course of the story. And a character is also seen
11 from his/ her place in the work, means; as he/ she is treated by the author toward his/ her place in the story, as a leading or a minor one (1981: 94). It also can be observed from his/ her social relationship, which means the personal relationship with other character or wider social relationship. The mental qualities, that is the typical ways of thinking, feeling and acting seems significant to identify the characters (1981: 93).
An Introduction to Fiction states that character has more complexity in
meanings. It poses the meaning of the individuals who appear in the story. Over more, it also refers to the mixture of interests, desire, emotions and moral principles that shape each of these individuals (1965:17). And to analyze a character in a literary work, Bernet formulates that there are some vital factors that must be considered when learning about character in a fiction; those are: what the character says, what the character does, what other characters (including the narrator of the story) say about the character, and what other characters do (Bernet, 1988: 72).
Following, theory of Characterization seems necessary to have a suitable analysis of the character. According to Abrams, characterization is the representation of a person in dramatic or narrative works. This may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or commentary, and direct methods inviting the readers to gather qualities from characters’ actions, speech or appearance. Characterization is explained as the creation imaginary persons. In some literary works, the author pictures certain qualities of his own nature while in other works, he just presents the characters of the real or imaginary people and
12 does not involve more than just in the background. Characterization is meant to help the reader in understanding the character’s reason for doing such thing.
Moreover, the readers will be emotionally involved when they read the story (Yellend &Easton, 1953:30).
Characterization is also the process by which the characters are rendered to make them seen real to the reader. In Reading And Writing About Literature Rohrberger and Woods say that there are two principal ways an author characterizes the characters. First, the author uses direct means to describe physical appearance, intellectual, moral attributes, and the degree of sensitivity of the characters. Second, the author uses dramatic means and place of the character in situation to show what the character is by the way he or she behaves or speaks (1971: 20).
Methodically, Holman and Harmon give three ways observing a character’s characterization. First, characterization is seen from the explicit presentation from the author of the character through direct exposition. Second, characterization can be recognized from the presentation of the character in action. And the last, to figure out a character’s characterization is by the representation from within a character (1986: 81).
2. The Second Wave Feminism
Second wave feminism is a product of the liberationist movement of the mid 1960’s. Like the previous wave of feminism, this second generation echoes its voice from the United States and Britain through out the world, including
13 Australia. Second-wave feminism hits Australia at the end of 1969. In the Australian context, this fundamentally global characteristic of feminism gains special significance. Since the beginning of Federation, Australian society has been perceived and portrayed as democratic and egalitarian. Therefore, the second wave of feminism coincides with an outbreak of social movements struggling for the rights of other marginalized groups such as immigrants, particularly those from non-English speaking backgrounds. The movement focuses on a revolution pushing for women to change their perception of themselves and society. The emphasis is placed on raising female awareness and promoting personal transformation <http://www.abc.net.au/ola/citizen/women/women-power.htm>.
The ideology is in a great extent influenced by the writings of French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and American feminist Kate Millet, who draw attention to the structure of the western society that plots circumstance of women oppression. In The Second Sex (1949) de Beauvoir argues that culture regards men as normal and women as an aberration or “the other”, and she identifies that under the patriarchal culture, this is the nature of women (Humm, 1994: 144).
From feminism’s rejection of women dependence on men, second wave feminism’s focal emphasis shifts to the theme of reproduction, to women’s ‘experience’, to sexual ‘difference’ and to ‘sexuality’ as at once a form of oppression and something to celebrate (1997:128). Maggie Humm in Feminisms:
A Reader also notifies; “’Reproduction’, ‘experience’, ’difference’- second wave
feminism has developed these issues into a new body of feminism.” In shorter
14 terms, if the first-wave feminism talks about ‘production’, while the second-wave brings revolutionary issues of ‘reproduction’.
Reproductive rights are to second wave feminism what productive rights were to first wave feminism. […] Second wave feminism takes as its starting point the politics of reproduction, while sharing first wave feminism’s politics of legal, educational, and economic equal rights for women (1992: 53). Reproduction, besides pointing to the process of intergenerational reproduction or the reproduction of daily life in the maintenance, it also points the socially mediated process of biological reproduction and sexuality (Humm, 1992: 53).
Second wave feminists gather the demands for a woman’s right to determine her own ‘identity’ and ‘sexuality’. These two strands of ideology were represented in the seven demands of the movement. The demands are: equal pay; equal education and equal opportunities in work; financial and legal independence; free 24 hour day care for children, and the specific demands for ‘sexuality’ are: free contraception and abortion on demand; a woman’s right to define her own sexuality and an end to discrimination against lesbians; and freedom from violence and sexual coercion like domestic violence, family violence, and rape (Shelden&Widowson, 1997: 129; Madsen, 2000: 155).
‘Sexuality’ will be stressed more here. The basic strand of second-wave feminism, as explained in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice, is concerned with the ways in which men have controlled and subordinated women’s bodies. It sees patriarchy coerces women into heterosexuality, using violence to suppress women’s powers and sexuality. Modern Criticism and Theory: a Reader declares the matter, and it asserts that sex become a vulgar display of power.
15 Sexuality is prescribed as heterosexuality, of which masculine heterosexuality is prescribed as heterosexuality, of which masculine heterosexuality is the norm and feminine heterosexuality is the complement. Sex not only expresses but also determines how power is experienced in personal relationship and social behaviour (2000:268). It means that women under the masculine- prescribed heterosexuality do not have actual power to determine their sexuality. Therefore they lose the genuine identity of being human. They are sexually only a complement for men’s. They are dependent.
Non establishment of sexual identity of women makes men has transformed his penis into an instrument of power to dominate and determine women’s sense of sexuality. The femininity or female sense of sexuality under patriarchy does merely serve the male. This is the major activity of patriarchy; men’s control over reproduction and the sexuality of women’s body.
Women’s sense of sexuality is a product of this sexual culture. It brings women into what Mary Daly calls with women’s “true self” and “false self”.
Under patriarchy women have a false self, because they are alienated from their authenticity. Women are obscured with misshaped self image. The victimization happens through the ‘acceptance’, when women follow the determination and innately see themselves this way.
Through the subordination of women, male supremacy also centers on the act of sexual intercourse justified by the term of ‘heterosexual practice’. By this condition, ‘the reducing women into instruments for men’s sexual pleasure’ happens. Patriarchy sexually objectifies women (Humm, 1990, 190-191).
16 Second-wave feminist’s writing that becomes a model of criticism is
Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch. In the book, this Australian feminist promotes sexual freedom for women, and in this same writing she criticized the institutions of marriage and the nuclear family. Family is a major site of women’s oppression, in view of the fact that there is a ‘reducing of women to an instrument for men’s sexual pleasure within the family.’ The culturally built conception sees that in heterosexual marriage the wife is a property belongs to the husband. It makes the husband, the patriarchal representatives supreme for everything including the sex, the sign of genuine self identity. There is fact that patriarchy uses violence to suppress women’s powers and sexuality. Women’s life is determined; it brings women to the alienation from their authenticity (2000: 420).
Feminists have argued that sexual and domestic violence are not isolated incidents but are central to the subordination of women by patriarchy (2000: 155-157).
Nuclear family is also a site where the victimization continues. It reproduces patriarchy; from the parent to the children. Greer argues that women are feminized from childhood by being taught rules that subjugate them. When women embrace the stereotypical version of adult femininity, they lose the autonomy. The result is an acceptance of powerless, isolated, and diminished sexuality (2000: 420).
Greer also argues that romance fiction has replaced coercion in heterosexual marriage. It coerced women into instrument for man’s pleasure through the mind. Schulamit Firestone goes further to claim that women are taught to develop an emotional need for men, which is called ‘love’ by patriarchy,
17 thus this emotion is corrupted. On the same way, second wave feminism argues that romance is a cultural tool of male which conceals a false eroticism. As Marry Wellstonecraft criticizes, romance has been giving false construction of love because it encourages the patriarchal socialization of women. Thus, second wave feminists, like Kate Millet, Andrea Dworkin, and Germaine Greer herself argue that emotion of love by this way is socially constructed and not innate. Firestone claims that romance identifies women as love object. Therefore it contributes women’s devaluation. She looks at romantic love as an ideology that traps women in marriage (Humm, 1990:245).
In literary tract, The second wave feminist theorists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray explores ways of creating knowledge from the viewpoint of the female body, including the idea of ‘ecriture feminine’ or women’s writing that will look from women’s point of view. Cixous formulates her criticism into some questions; about what a woman wants, how a woman experiences sexual pleasure, and how it is put into writing. Supporting Cixous, Irigaray’s criticism is questioning the actuality of women’s discourse, values, dreams and desires, everywhere in all things, and about how women define women’s function and social role, the sexual identity (1988: 256& 415). These theories are applicable for seeing everything in the novel from women’s perspective and finding the actual message, the feminism value represented in the novel.
Another feminist, notably American Andrea Dworkin, makes a turnover against the prescribed masculine-heterosexuality. She writes powerfully against patriarchal heterosexuality, which exploits women’s bodies and incites violence
18 against women. In response to these threats, as sex for the symbolization of power, the second wave feminists assert women’s legal rights to their own bodies, including the importance of the right to choose motherhood. The second-wave feminists also campaign that women might use motherhood as a source of strength and as a way of influencing future generations, rather than as a means of reproducing patriarchy. In particular, some feminists advocate different forms of parenting, as single mothers or within lesbian relationships to escape from the long time built patriarchal circumstance (Madsen, 2000: 155-158).
The solution to the issues of women’s dependence, for Greer, therefore is to free women from the destructive mental dependence that patriarchal culture induces. It is by mean with a ‘revolution’, as she asserts in her books The Female
Eunuch on the chapter with same title; ’Revolution’. Women should promiscuously correct false representation of femininity and form sexual freedom.
And first step to sexual liberation is through individual revolt. The feminists believe that personal is political (Humm, 1994: 43).
‘The personal is political’ is the main slogan of the second wave feminism. The phrase gives a direct relation between sociality and subjectivity so that to know the politics of women situation is to know women’s personal lives.
Feminism argues that women’s personal experience could provide the inspiration and basis for a new politics (Humm,1995: 204).
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3. The Interrelation between Literature, Second-Wave Feminism, and Sexual Revolution
Feminism and literature are inseparable. A Reader’s Guide to
Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism mentions that the interrelation of
sexual ideology and culture is addressed as a fundamental condition of literary form (1994: 22). And, “literature, in its polysemic use of language can therefore produce knowledge that afforded by feminist theory (Lauret, 1994: 15).” Hence, literature becomes one media of the feminist impact.
For Gayle Greene, feminism, correlated with literature, is a ‘teaching movement’, thus, it is a ‘reading movement’, and ‘writing movement’. Feminist writings such as fiction, poetry, or nonfiction have the function to transform confusion into consciousness. It enables people to understand the changes the women are living through and to interpret it (1991:50).
As mentioned in Liberating Literature, Feminist fiction begins to emerge in the mid to late 1970s, on the crest of the second-wave Women’s Movement.
Feminist fiction transforms the literary arena, and makes a political space in which women’s issues are discussed and feminist readership is constituted (Lauret, 1994: 1). Also from the perspective of gender politics, in The Revolution in Popular
Literature, Print, Politic, and the People , Ian Haywood examines that the literary
tracts, of feminized method, are considered as a progressive works, promoting strong character of women, who emerges not as a conservative but as a liberal (Haywood, 1990: 57).
One may say the varied representatives as conservative, liberal, or of another thought. Consequently, the criticism uses various novels as the touchstone
20 to examine these tenders of women’s desire, the actual ideas the writers try to promote. The women’s movement writers are using a variety of fictions and novels to depict or reflect the desire for a different space, a different and better circumstance (Macpherson, 1998: 93).
On the social function of work of literature, publicly, literature gives models of women’s struggle in defining their sexual identity. In the progress, literature develops the sexual politics that opened the way for second-wave feminism to think afresh about reproduction and sexuality (Humm, 1994: 22).