Background of The Study.

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

The short story “Sonny’s Blues” is considered as African American literature since the author, James Baldwin, is an Afro-American writer. Commonly black literature covers themes of struggle and identity searching. One study from Elaine R. Ognibene, Black Literature Revisited: “Sonny’s Blues”, stated that “Sonny’s Blues ” also contains such themes: In it Baldwin deals with the question of prejudice and stereotypes; with an attempt to bridge a modern cliche-the generation gap; with an ascent from drugs to something more real and more lasting; and with a search for self- identity that is every mans Ognibene, 1971: 36. The study discusses the main themes of “Sonny’s Blues”. Ognibene analyzed every part of the story she found that many themes involved in it, especially those which are usually found in African American literature. She stated that the story deals with the struggle of the main characters from prejudice and stereotyping shown in his conflict with his brother, the conflict with himself seen through his addiction of drugs, and finally the self-identity discovering through music, jazz- blues, he plays. A further study about jazz-blues music that help the main character find his self-identity was conducted by Richard Albert in his article titled The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. He stated that blues music is an art form that represents the struggle of the black people. The blues as music, as opposed to the blues as such, take into account both form and content. In this story, content message is all important. As music, the blues are considered by many blacks to be a reflection of and a release from the suffering they endured through and since the days of slavery Albert, 1984: 179. The statement actually shows that blues is actually a meaningful music for the black people. It is not only meaningful individually, but also for the whole community. Through “Sonny‟s Blues”, he said, James Baldwin wants every reader to know how important the music is for the community. The jazz-blues music can also become a symbol for the African-American people. An undergraduate thesis by Helena Fransisca Nababan titled The Representation of Jazz Music as The Symbol of Freedom and Dignity of The Black Americans as Seen Through The Main Characters’ Development in James Baldwin’s “Sonny‟s Blues” studies how jazz-blues music becomes a symbol of freedom and dignity for the Black Americans. She uses psychological study to discover the development of the character and signify the changes of the main character‟s attitude. The symbol of having freedom and dignity, mainly for musicians is actually grasped by Sonny‟s brother since the beginning of the performances. Although Sonny‟s brother is still confused with the meaning, but, at least, he may observe that it is the life expression of the Black Americans. It is his society that created the music, therefore, he feels that he must be accept it as he accepts himself. Nababan, 2001: 76 Nababan talks a lot about how the main characters in the story accept the condition as Black Americans and about their struggle to be accepted by the white observed through the main characters ‟ development in the story. The jazz music is the symbol of their struggle in order to be accepted and to have the equality as United States citizens. This study focus on the study of the relations between the revival meeting and the jazz performance of “Sonny‟s Blues” to reveal the significance and the motif of the verbal music. While most of the previous studies have great portions of concern on the jazz-blues performance, this study also analyzes the revival meeting which is also considered to have an important role in the story. This study analyzes the structure, relationship, and the similarities between those two musical events in the story. Hopefully, this study provides alternative point of view as well as complementing other studies

B. Review of Related Theories

To conduct the analysis of the relations of the revival meeting and the jazz performance in the story of “Sonny‟s Blues” by James Baldwin, some theories are required. The reviews of theories in this study consist of review on verbal music and review on metaphor and metonymy in structural analysis.

1. Review on Verbal Music

As described earlier, verbal of music is a representation of music in literature that describes musical experience rather than imitation of sound in the form of language. The theory of the verbal music is mainly taken from Steven Paul Scher‟s Notes Toward a Theory Of Verbal Music. According to Scher, there are many verbal evocations of music and he divided it into literary and non- literary verbal evocations of music. He suggests the system of relationship between music and literature and the evocations of music in this scheme: Scher, 1970:151 MUSIC LITERATURE evocation of music absolute program vocal poetry or music music music prose non-literary literary program word musical structures verbal notes music and techniques music The scheme above shows that the evocations of music placed in the middle of music and literature. The evocations of music is the verbal imaginative recreation of musical experience as Scher states: In all literary evocations of music the poet supplements his ordinary source i.e., poetic imagination with direct musical experience andor a score, or allows his imagination to be inspired by music; he thus assumes the role of transmitter, rendering suggesting, de-scribing, or creating music in words. Scher, 1970: 152 Based on the system above absolute music, program music, vocal music is the pure manifestation of music, while poetry and prose are the pure manifestation of literature. Program notes is „professional music analysis,‟ Scher, 1970: 152