Object of the Study

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

Top Girls could be seen as a typical feminist writing. Its existence is to criticize the patriarchal idea at that time and also what existed before it. It is true that Top Girls is a work that has direct implication with Churchill‟s own political background as a feminist. Churchill in her interview with Betsko and Koenig says: When I was in the States in „79 I talked to some women who were saying how well things were going for women in America now with far more top executives being women, and I was struck by difference between that and the feminism I was used to in England which is far more closely connected with socialism 1987:77. From what Churchill has said to Betsko and Koenig, we know her stand point that she is more a social feminist. She presents her Top Girls as the reaction towards not only men‟s domina tion but also other women‟s domination. Top Girls is a 1980s play that was produced as a direct response to political event. It is that Top Girls produced in opposition to Thatcherism Tycer, 2008: 13-17. Margaret Thatcher was elected as Britain‟s first female prime minister in 1979 www.bbc.co.ukhistorypeoplemargaret_thatcher. While people in general saw it as a victory for equal representation, Churchill saw it only as a shift to a capitalism where things would get worse under Thatcher. Top Girls is written in postmodern style. Churchill uses fragmentation to deliver her message. The story is broken down into seven parts that are within three Acts. What has been fragmented in this play and its signification are explain in the next section.

A. Fragmentation Depicted in the Play

Before analyzing the fragmentation depicted in the play, it is important to know the definition of the word fragmentation itself. In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English , it is written: Frag-ment fræg‟mənt „frægment, fræg‟ment v [I,T] to break something, or be broken into a lot of small separate parts - used to show disapproval: the dangers of fragmenting the Health Service － fragmented adj: a fragmented society － fragmentation ͵frægmən‟teɪʃən, -men- n[U] From the dictionary, it is clear that fragmentation means the breaking of something, so does in literature, it also means to break up the text into pieces. It is similar to what Schlegel in Kevin Hart‟s Postmodernism Beginner’s Guide states that “fragment is merely a piece that has survived the destruction of a whole Hart, 2004: 69. Thus it can be seen that there is no difference between the definition of fragmentation in the dictionary and in literature book as both states that fragmentation is the break of something. Fragmentation was firstly known simply as “the fragment.” It is the term first popularized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge through his poem “Kubla Khan” and later developed by Friedrich Schlegel in the late 1700s, which is known as Romanticism period. Writing in fragment was first popular as a poem writing style in the 1700-1800, from Coleridge to Wordsworth Hart, 2004: 68. The term fragmentation was in its peak position as a popular feature of twentieth-century art and culture. There is a difference in the usage of fragmentation between the Modernist and Postmodernist. The difference lies in the mood or attitude towards the fragmentation itself. In Modernism, there is a tone of lament, pessimism, and despair when using fragmented form, while in the Postmodernism, fragmented form is welcomed. Postmodernist sees fragmentation as an „exhilarating, liberating phenomenon, symptomatic of our escape from the claustrophobic embrace of fixed systems of belief‟ Barry, 2002: 84. Fragmentation in general has characteristics as follows: First, it posits a hidden center in each text. Second, it is considered as a self-enclosed item without due regard to the spacing between itself and other fragments. Third, it was required to be relatively short. And fourth, it remains in fee to identity: not a formal unity, to be sure, but a supposedly higher, imaginative wholeness Hart, 2004: 72. Fragmentation in general is supposed to have a hidden message in each text. Although in many cases it seems to ignore the “spacing between itself and other fragments” Hart, 2004: 72, fragmentation also respects either the interval, interruption, or even silence that space each text. Fragmentation could be resolved in unity, but supposedly only in more imaginative way. It means that to resolve the fragmentation, the audience need to think deeper and go beyond the story so that they could formulate the message of the story in a complete wholeness. Actually there is no fixed rule for the writers to strictly use those characteristics of fragmentation. As the literary world developed, they could have their own style in their writings. In this study, the subject being discussed is the fragmented writing method and style in Caryl Churchill‟s Top Girls. Considered as a leading feminist text in its first London debut in 1982, Top Girls let its audience have several interpretation for its main point, feminism. Using postmodern format, fragmentation, Churchill might want to challenge the social ideology at that time. It is on the female stereotypes that she wants to speak up. In this fragmented play, she fragments character, setting and plot.