B. Approach of the Study
In Bressler’s Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, psychoanalytic criticism is used to make a criticism on a literary work. Psychoanalytic
criticism is first developed by Sigmund Freud and as the time went by, it has been becoming more complex as it has diversed form of development. Psychoanalytic criticism is firstly
introduced as the therapy for people with psychological disturbance. As it is developed into a literary criticism, it is still related to the concept of clinical psychoanalysis.
Bressler states that psychoanalytic criticism is an approach to literary analysis that holds that humans as the complex yet somewhat understandable creatures often fail to note
the influence of the unconscious on our motivations and our everyday actions 1999:161. This idea is the starting point of the analysis of this research since related to the topic that
the writer would like to discuss next. In this kind of criticism, the critic has to read the text of the unconscious. It might be
meant to seek what the text does not say or to read the hidden meaning of the text. Psychoanalysis does not only do that, but also does the steps of uncovering the processes,
the dream-work, by which that text is produced. . This literary approach helps the writer to analyze the psychological problems and self-
defense mechanisms of the main character, Suzie. Although psychoanalytic criticism comes from the field of psychology, it is relevant to be used as an approach to analyze the literary
work because psychology and literature are closely related subjects.
C. Method of the Study
This research applied library research. It is a method to get the material or data taken from the library. Primary and Secondary sources are used in this research. The primary
source is the literary text itself, a short story by Sally Potter titled “The Man who Cried”. The secondary sources are literature and psychology books. They are used for evidence to
support this research. There are several steps taken in the research. First of all, it is to read the short story
carefully and repeatedly in order to understand the story. The second step is to find out some references related to the theory of literature needed to help the writer analyze the elements in
the story. The next is to analyze a traumatic experience from the main character that she is
repressed and also how the defense mechanism is applied tothe main character used the theory of psychoanalytic criticism by Freud. Finally, after writing the analysis, the writer
draws a conclusion based on the overall analysis. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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