Ideology in chick lit as seen in Jane Green’s Jemina J, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s The Edge Of Reason - USD Repository
IDEOLOGY IN CHICK LIT AS SEEN IN JANE GREEN’S JEMIMA J, LAUREN WEISBERGER’S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND HELEN FIELDING’S BRIDGET JONES’S THE EDGE OF REASON
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI
Student Number : 014214059
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERSIDEOLOGY IN CHICK LIT AS SEEN IN JANE GREEN’S JEMIMA J, LAUREN WEISBERGER’S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND HELEN FIELDING’S BRIDGET JONES’S THE EDGE OF REASON
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI
Student Number : 014214059
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERSAfter a while you learn, That the circumstances and the environment have influence upon us, But we are responsible for ourselves. You start to learn that you should not compare yourself with others, But with the best you can be.
You discover that it takes a long time to become the person you wish to
be,And that the time is short. You learn that it doesn't matter where you have reached, But where you are going to.
But if you don't know where you are going to, Anywhere will do.
You learn that either you control your acts, Or they shall control you. And that to be flexible doesn't mean to be weak or not to have personality,
Because it doesn't matter how delicate and fragile the situation is, There are always two sides.
a poem by Veronica A Shoffstall.
Dedicated to Mom and dad... finally, I keep my promise to finish it...
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI Nomor Mahasiswa : 014214059
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
IDEOLOGY IN CHICK LIT AS SEEN IN JANE GREEN’S JEMIMA J, LAUREN WEISBERGER’S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND HELEN FIELDING’S BRIDGET JONES’S THE EDGE OF REASON
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me- ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Yogyakarta, 16 Agustus 2009 Yang menyatakan
(HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A thesis is not only a piece of work presented as requirement to obtain the bachelor degree, but more than that, thesis is a representation of how we keep our commitment, to our parents, our university and more over, to ourselves. This acknowledgment is dedicated to those who help me to keep my commitment and my promise.
First of all, I would like to thank Almighty God for answering my prayer. Once again, You always have a unique way answering my prayer although sometimes it surprises me. Thank You for opening all the doors that I can reach.
Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to my major sponsor Fajar Sasmita, S.S, M.Hum, who has guided and supported me especially for the precious time which he has spent for guiding me in writing this undergraduate thesis. I am grateful to have Dewi Widyastuti, S.S, M.Hum as my academic advisor, thank you for always remaind me to finish my study.
With lots of love, my special gratitude goes to my dearest family. I thank them for their love, prayers and financial support. They are my dearest father, Drs.
G.M. Sukamto, M.Pd, M.Si, thank you for understanding me, giving me the freedom to grow as I want to be and my dearest mother, Dra. Suwarti, thank you for supporting and trusting me, this thesis is specially dedicated to you mom. My dearest aunt and uncle, Endah Widyasari&Amadeus Abi, thank you for all the support, the coffee and the place to take a rest for a while.
A special dedication goes to Martina Novi Irawati, thankyou for precious time and friendship, we may take different path but our heart will always find each other. Special thanks to Anne Yunita Diyen, Sarah Yesi, Mery Tio, Meyra, Mia and Citra Kerina Tarigan who have shared crazy and amazing days with laughter, chats, trust honestly, happines, madness, pain and tears, now it is your turn. I also thanks to Maria Pulkeria Ratih and Anggraini Rahmaniasari, thank you for remind me for not quit, no matter hard it is.
I also thank Lia Hariningtyas, my companion to finish study, thank you for answering every messages that I send, I know sometimes it bothers you. I also thank to Dina, Nana, and Sista, thank you for the precious moment I spent in English Letters Sanata Dharma, without all of you I would be lost. I also thank for Michaela Credo and Kelik Priharyanto for giving me the spirit to finish my study.
At last, I would like to thank to anybody not mentioned here, who has given me many supports and enormous assitance in the process of finishing this thesis.
Thanks for understanding and supporting me, it has been a precious experience in my life. May the Almighty God bless you.
Hayu Prima Indrastuti
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ..................................................................................................... iii MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................................................. iv DEDICATION PAGE ...................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... x ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION .................................................................................
1 A. Background of the Study .................................................................................... 1
B. Problem Formulation .......................................................................................... 7
C. Objectives of the Study ....................................................................................... 7
D. Definition of Terms ............................................................................................ 7 ...............................................................
9 CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies .................................................................................. 9
B. Review of Related Theories................................................................................. 11
1. Theory of Character......................................................................................... 11
2. Theory of Representation................................................................................ 16
3. Theory of Semiology....................................................................................... 18
4. Theory of Ideology.......................................................................................... 22
5.Woman Culture in America.............................................................................. 25
C. Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................... 26 .............................................................................
28 CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY
A. Object of Study ................................................................................................... 28
B. Approach of the Study ........................................................................................ 30
C. Method of the Study ........................................................................................... 31 .........................................................................................
33 CHAPTER IV : ANALYSIS
A. The Characters of Chick-Lit Novels ................................................................... 34
1. Jemima J.......................................................................................................... 34
2. Bridget Jones .................................................................................................. 40 3. Andrea Sach ...................................................................................................
45 B. Representation of Women through The Characters ..........................................
51 C. Ideology depicted in Chick Lit ........................................................................... 59 CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION ....................................................................................
60
Appendix 1 .............................................................................................................. 63 Appendix 2 .............................................................................................................. 64 Appendix 3 .............................................................................................................. 65
ABSTRACT
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI (2009). Ideology in Chick-Lit as seen in Jane
Green’s Jemima J, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil wears Prada and Helen
Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s The Edge of Reason. Yogyakarta : Departement of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
Chick-lit as new genre in women novel has become a phenomenon because it has been sold out in great number and has been translated in many languages. As novels, chick-lit also stated has become the mirror of women in 1990’s. With the theme single working woman in their middle ages, chick-lit is dealing with the issues and problem faced by women. But, chick-lit as popular culture is not purely portraying the life of woman. Chick-lit also has a message that want to be delivered to their reader. This message translated into an ideology, an idea behind chick-lit novel. The main characters are selected in order to understand the mind of the author, including the ideology put by the author. I choose three chick-lit novel in order to give a representation chick-lit novel. From many chick-lit novel that has been published, I will used Jane Green’s Jemima J, Lauren Weiberger’s The Devil Wears
Prada, and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason as the source of my
research.In this undergraduate thesis, I will analyzise three main problem. The first is the characterization of the chick-lit characters from the three novel, the second is the representation of women in 1990’s that depicted in chick-lit characters and the third is the ideology behind chick-lit that depicted through the representation of women in 1990’s.
To analyze the problem above, I used cultural studies approach as a tool to understand chick-lit novel. Cultural studies approach is an approach which combine many theories to give a full understanding about culture phenomenon. This research is using library research with the novel as the main source.
There are three main result gained from the analysis. The first is the characterization of chick lit character, the second is the representation of woman in 1990’s depicted in chick-lit’s main characters, they are represented as working, naive and materialistic women. While the third result, the ideology depicted in chick-lit is ideology of capitalism. Chick-lit as popular culture is sustaining the ideology of capitalism through the characters that characterize in chick-lit. Women are
ABSTRAK
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI (2009). Ideology in Chick-Lit as seen in Jane
Green’s Jemima J, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil wears Prada and Helen
Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s The Edge of Reason. Yogyakarta : Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Chick-lit sebagai genre baru dalam novel wanita telah menjadi sebuah fenomena karena berhasil mencetak angka penjualan yang sangat besar dan telah diterjemahkan ke dalam banyak bahasa. Di sisi lain, chick-lit juga menyatakan sebagai gambaran wanita masa kini. Dengan temanya wanita single dan bekerja berusia menengah, chick-lit mengangkat masalah-masalah yang dihadapi wanita. Namun, sebagai budaya populer chick-lit tidak secara murni memotret kehidupan wanita. Chick-lit juga menyimpan pesan yang ingin disampaikan kepada pembacanya. Pesan ini telah diterjemahkan sebagai sebuah ideologi, sebuah ide yang diletakkan dibelakang novel chick-lit. Karakter utama dipilih dengan tujuan agar dapat memahami pemikiran sang pengarang, termasuk ideologi yang ingin dimasukkan oleh sang pengarang. Saya memilih tiga novel chick-lit sebagai representasi dari chick-lit novel. Dari sekian banyak chick-lit novel yang telah diterbitkan, saya akan menggunakan Jemima J karya Jane Green, The Devil Wears
Prada karya Lauren Weisberger, dan Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason sebagai
bahan dari kajian saya.Dalam skripsi ini, saya akan menganalisis tiga masalah utama. Yang pertama adalah karakterisasi dari karakter dalam ketiga novel chick-lit, yang kedua adalah potret wanita masa kini yang digambarkan oleh karakter-karakter chick-lit dan yang ketiga adalah ideologi di balik chick-lit yang tergambar melalui potret wanita masa kini.
Untuk menganalisa masalah di atas, saya menggunakan pendekatan kajian budaya sebagai alat untuk memahami novel-novel chick-lit. Pendekatan kajian budaya adalah pendekatan yang mengkombinasikan berbagai teori untuk memberikan sebuah pemahaman yang menyeluruh mengenai fenomena budaya. Kajian ini menggunakan kajian pustaka dengan novel sebagai sumber utama.
Ada tiga hasil yang didapat dari analisis. Yang pertama adalah karakterisasi dari karakter chick-lit, yang kedua adalah representasi wanita di tahun 1990’s yang tergambar dalam chick-lit karakter adalah wanita bekerja yang naive dan materialistik. Sementara, hasil yang ketiga adalah ideology yang tergambar dalam chick-lit adalah ideologi kapitalis. Chick-lit sebagai budaya populer menjaga kelanggengan ideologi kapitalis. Wanita direpresentasikan sebagai konsumen dalam industri untuk menjaga keberlangsungan industri.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study Two hundred years ago, women worked alongside with men in all sorts of
laboring work. However, as the industrial revolution began to require fewer workers, gradually women were pushed out of the industrial workforce and the beliefs grow that the proper place for a woman was in the home. Feminist sociologists have argued that what was happening here was really a battle of the sexes and the males won, banishing women to the home.
At the turn of the century, less than 30 per cent of the workface was female. However, the First World War (1914-1918) took away the bulk of young men to fight. Women were recalled to the factories where they did all the work men had done. But with the war over, the jobs were returned to the men. The same thing occurred in the Second World War.
In the 1960’s, however, the number of women in the workforce began to increase. This reflected the changing attitudes of women themselves. They began to fight against the idea that once they had children they ought not to work; instead they began to seek work as soon as the youngest child attended school. Allied to the changing attitude of women was the growth in ‘service industries’ (those which do not actually create anything but provide a service) and the growth in ‘light; electronic men and because they were prepared to work part time they were more flexible to employ. In short, female employees were attractive to employers. That was the beginning of women’s stories as a worker. Nowadays, women write their own stories as worker through chick-lit.
“The Story of Women from Heaven”, title in Kompas, one of the largest newspaper in Indonesia to describe chick-lit (http://www.kompas.com/kompas- cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972525.htm). According to Rende (2008:3), chick-lit is a newly contrived style of writing. Marketed as a ‘for women, by women, about women’ genre, the chickerati (authors of chick-lit) have benefited financially and profesionally by writing about ‘the feelings of women in a drawing-room’ (or maybe just the living room of a Manhattan apartment), and the ‘everywoman-type-heroine, complete with dieting woes and dating insecurities’. The genere has even been inducted into the prestigious pages of the Oxford English Dictionary, which offers a simplistic definition of the novel as ‘a type of fiction, typically focusing on the social livers and relationships of young professional women, and often aimed at readers with similar experiences’. While semantically, the name of the genre itself remains questionable in that it joins two terms with negative conotations: chick (the slang reference for a woman) and lit (the shortening of “literature” to “lit” typically denotes frivolity or insignificance) (Rende, 2008:3). While Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel Bridget Jones’s Diary is credited with sparking the genre, and granted the momentous honor as being the first chick-lit novel. First used by Cris Mazza and and unapologetic” text. The phrase was mockingly used in an article by James Wolcott, “Hear Me Purr”, refering to the girlish style of writing used by female journalist in newspaper columns. At the end, Mazza and DeShell (1995:18) described chick-lit as books flaunting pink, aqua and lime covers featuring cartoon figures of long-legged women wearing stiletto heels.
The raise of chick-lit as a new genre has been followed by a serious debate. Moreover, chick-lit comes as a phenomenon. From the first time published in the middle of 1990 with Bridget Jones’s Diary, chick-lit has a hilarious success record.
In Britain, the place where chick-lit born, chick-lit has been sold many copies and has become best seller novel. Ferris (2006:32) reported that chick-lit reader are eating it up at a price of $71 millions, just in 2002 alone. Not only in Britain, chick- lit is also spreading all over America and all over the world. The success of chick-lit in America and Britain has lead many publishers from all over the country to translate and publish chick-lit in their countries. Not far from Britain and America, chick-lit also made success and become best seller in many countries. Chick-lit also success in inspiring the born of other subgenre such teen lit and mom-lit.
(http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm).
Chick-lit is claimed to be the novel that represents women in 1990’s which are depicted to be single and working in their middle age. One of the key success of chick-lit is the representation of woman nowadays with their issues and problems as worker through the stories and the characters of chick-lit.
chick lit umumnya adalah para perempuan seusia tokoh-tokoh dalam novel tersebut. Menurut Paramaditha, para perempuan tersebut melihat refleksi diri melalui tokoh yang coba memaknai hidup di tengah pergulatan dengan isu-isu perempuan modern. Isu-isu tersebut berkisar seputar pilihan karier, mencari jodoh, bentuk tubuh (body image-Red), dan keuangan.
Pendapat serupa diungkapkan oleh Ibnu Wahyudi, pengajar di Fakultas Ilmu Budaya. Menurut Ibnu Wahyudi, mengapa pasar begitu antusias menyambut novel-novel chick lit tersebut, tak lain adalah karena para pembacanya-para perempuan dewasa-merasa seolah-olah terwakili. Lebih jauh lagi, para pembaca juga dikatakan akhirnya merasa mampu mengaktualisasi diri sebagai bagian dari kehidupan modern yang memang diangkat di dalam chick lit. http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm
However, the success of chick-lit is not only being emphasized but also being questioned by other women. Chick-lit was born during the era of modern woman in which feminism and gender equality has become a ‘taken-for-granted’ ideology. The writers and the readers are women whose mother are used to dealing with the ideology of feminism and gender equality, both are the issues that they life with. Nevertheless, it still being questioned, whether chick-lit is further step of feminism or it was a backward of feminism. Some critic put chick-lit as post feminism, but the definition of post feminism and how post feminism stands against feminism are still questioned ( http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972525.htm ).
Feminism or not, chick-lit is a symbol of woman culture and culture phenomenon. Chick-lit is culture phenomenon because it has been touch the life of thousand women as their readers. As the symbol of woman culture, what or whom chick-lit represent?
Chick-lit is put as popular culture because according to critics chick-lit is too Popular culture will lead to the description of culture by F.R. Leavis. Leavis define culture into two categories, high and low culture. High culture refers to the culture of bourgeois while the low culture refers to the culture of the proletarian, the working- class (Bessnet, 1997:7). Popular culture is defined as low culture, a culture of the working-class. Suitable with the description, working class is also become the background of chick-lit stories and the reader of chick-lit. While it also refers to three important themes, first concerns with what or who determines popular culture? Does it emerge from the people themselves as an autonomous expression of their interest and modes of experience? Or is it imposed from above by those in position of power as a type of social control? The second is the influence of commercialization and industrialization upon popular culture; does the emergence of culture in commodity form mean that criteria of profitability and marketability take precedence over quality, artistry, integrity and intellectual challenge? The third is the ideological role of popular culture, to indoctrinate the people, to get them to accept and adhere to ideas and values that ensure the continued dominance of those in more privileged positions who thus exercise power over them? Or is it about rebellion and opposition to the prevailing social order? (Strinati, 2004:2).
Chick-lit has been stated to be popular by scholar. Since the very beginning, the term chick-lit as a genre has been put chick-lit into an industry. While chick-lit as popular culture cannot be separated from ideologies. Ideologies, as the site of struggle from many interest has become a drive that lead chick-lit readers (read: women) into certain knowledge. It also can be stated that chick-lit as woman culture ideology in the media message has been able to make the message appear as natural and spontaneous presentation of reality. Chick-lit as reality is not resistant from the effect. Chick-lit also contains some message which will influence the readers, but what the effect of chick-lit toward modern woman as their reader?
The question cannot be answered without understanding the ideology behind chick-lit. Ideology critically examines the ideas, feelings, beliefs, values, and representation embedded in, and promoted by, the artifact and practices of a culture or a group (Leitch, 2001:45).The ideology will be revealed through the characters of chick-lit. The characters are chosen because through the characters we can pop up into the head of the writer. Through the characters reader can read almost all the message of the novels including the ideologies behind it.
In order to make the nearest representation of chick-lit novels, the research will choose three novels of chick-lit. The first is Jemima J by Jane Green, the second is The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger and the third is Bridget Jones II, the by Helen Fielding. The three novels will be analyzed using cultural
Edge of Reason
studies approach. Cultural studies are chosen because cultural studies offer distinctive answers to the two key questions, what is intepretation and what is literature. First, literature consist of popular, mass and minority genres as well as elite cannonical works. It includes a wide array of discursive materials, from writings in standard literary genres to rap lyrics, blue poems, oral legends, diaries, magazines, movies, posters, romance, soap operas, and so on. With a different population or in
Second, interpretation employs institutional analysis, ideology critique, and field- based research, as well as textual explication, exegesis, aesthetic appreciation and personal reponse (Leitch, 2001:45).
B. Problem Formulation
This research tries to answer some questions below 1.
How are the characterizations of the main characters? 2. How women in 1990’s represented through the main characters of chic-lit? 3. What is the ideology behind the success of chick-lit novels?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study is conducted to find the answers of the questions formulated in the problem formulation. There are two objectives in this literary study, they are:
1. to find out how women in 1990’s represented in the chick-lit novels through the characterization of the main characters.
2. to find out the ideologies that influence chick-lit as novels genre and support their success as novels through the representation of women in the novels.
D. Definition of Terms and lit (the shortening of ‘literature’ to ‘lit’ typically denotes frivolity or insignificance) (Rende, 2008:3). While Oxford English Dictionary describe chick-lit as “ a type of fiction, typically focusing on the social lives and relationships of young professional women, and oftem aimed at readers with similar experiences”. In this study, chick lit is described as a type of fiction’s writing style, typically focussing on the social lives and relationships of young working women.
Ideology comes from the word idea and logos (science), while idea itself envisages meanings something individuals think up for themselves (Edgar&Sedgwick, 2005:189). The definition of ideology based on Hall definition is a site of struggle from many interests (Turner, 2003: 172). Ideology also has function to construct ‘false conciousness’ of the self and of one’s relation to history (Turner, 2003; 19). While Karl Marx defined ideology not as consciousness of people that determine their being, but, on the contratry, their social being that determines their conciousness. Further, Marx and Engels in “The German Ideology” developed an account of ideology in terms of economic base and ideological superstructure. If a person’s class position is determined by his or her economic position in relation to the mode of production, then this individual will share an ideology representing the economic class they belong to (Easthope&MacGowan, 1998:169). Based on the definition above, ideology in this study described as the idea that chick lit writer think up and wrote behind the story of chick lit novels which contains of many interest representing the economic class they belong to.
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The evolution of the world not only affected the world of reality but also
influence the world of imaginary. Women novels, as part of the world of imaginary has been giving birth to chick-lit, as the proof of the influence of the world change. Chick- lit has been receive compliment as novels which giving the new color of women novels. Chick-lit has been develop a new style of writing which has not been used before such as telling a story through diaries or email which has become one of the trend of writing since chick-lit published in the first time ( http://www.kompas.com/kompas-
cetak/0404/17/pustaka/973634.htm )
According to Glasburgh (2006:18), the sudden explosion of chick-lit genre in the market because the literature has few ideas : Mabry (2005:27) suggest that as traditional romance reader age (their average age is about forty-five), publishers are honing in on the next generation of female readers. These younger readers are looking for something sassier, funnier, and with more romantic choices than the traditional romance formula has to offer. Others liken it to a return to consumerism: chick-lit’s preoccupation with shopping and fashion compounds its relationship with mass culture and legitimazes the reader’s own assumed preoccupation with “these indispensable features of the feminine universe” (Radway, 1984:193). It is safe to say that there is some reader interest in consumerism as no one is completely immune to the powers of
Chick-lit is also mentioned to be ‘zeitgeist’ or the representation of the age, as chick-lit is the novel wrote by women and for women then can be summed that chick-lit is the representation of women nowadays (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19donadio.html). The novels also titled to be the picture of women from heaven although all their heroine is not the perfect women in the world. It is mentioned to be the picture of women from heaven because although they are story about women but they faith is far much different from women nowadays. Their luck and their serendipity are giving some dream that feminist never able to give (http://www.kompas.com/kompas- cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm).
The third wave feminism is not the end of feminist movement. Some critics put post feminism as the following chain of feminism. Chick-lit which aimed for women has been said as the post feminism novel. Novel which born from the second-wave- feminism women, they born from mother which whispering feminism as story before sleep, they are not fighting for equal rights anymore nor they are not understand either the struggle of their mother for equality. They see equal right as something which given taken for granted but not something which has been fight for by their mother. They see feminism as something they already have and have been make them fighting for something else. Some critics have been seen chick-lit as degradation of feminism. They consider chick-lit did not support the struggle of many women which has been fight for equality in some third world country. They see the women characterized in chick-lit as women which fighting for something too simple. Post feminism is not seen as next
Not all women agree with the opinion of Diane Goodman, from Allegheny College. Post feminism can be seen as the following or the regression of feminism, it depend how people see. For Gadis Arivia, one of Indonesian feminist, post feminism is defined as feminist movement which not fighting for equality, but fighting for something more particular and plural, the struggle which did not have any relationship with ideology but still become women’s problem. Women aimed by chick-lit are they who step onward from feminist movement which make them consider that women not only facing the problem of equality, but also other simple problem. Intan Paramadina, literature and culture critics, put critics as novel which down-to-earth, the heroine which not perfect has been put chick-lit has close relationship with the reader and put the reader identified themselves with chick-lit character ( http://www.kompas.com/kompas-
cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm ).
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Character
A character is the creation of the novelist who becomes important in the novel because it is necessary for a novelist to make his or her works interesting. Characters are very significant because in order to understand the novel, the reader need to understand the character.
In order to understand the theory of character, we need to explain the word character itself. According to Stanton in An Introduction to Friction, the word character has two meaning. The first meaning is the individuals who appear in the story and this meaning is the mixture of interest, desire, emotion, and moral principles that make up each of these individuals. This also raises the question of “how would you describe his character?”. (Stanton, 1965:17)
A theory of character is needed in analyzing a novel, which relates to the character and her background. Barnet explain that the author presents his/her own character in his/her own work (1988:712). It means that it is a must to have a character or characters in fiction. Abraham in his Glossary of Literary Terms defines character as the persons who are presented in a narrative and dramatic work who reveal themselves in what the say (dialogue) and by what they do (the action). A character’s speech or action may reveal some of the author’s ideas (1971: 20-21).
E.M Forster in his book Aspect of the Novel (1974 : 46-51) divides character into two kind, flat and round character : a. Flat Character
Forster states that a flat character is built around “a single idea or quality” and is presented in outline and without much individualizing. A flat character is characterized by one or two traits. Forster call this kind of character flat because we see only one side of him.
There are two advantages of flat character. One great advantages of flat character is that he is recognized easily whenever he comes. He is recognized not by the visual eye which merely notes the recurrence of a proper name, but by the reader’s emotional eye. It means that by seeing a part of a person’s character, the reader can get the end of it, the character stays the same (unchanged). He remains in the reader’s mind as unatterable for the reason that he is not changed by circumstances. The character can be summed one or two words.
b. Round Character A round character is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity. Forster says that we remember him in connection with the great scenes. It indicates that we do not remember him so easily for the waxes and wanes and has many facets like human being. Therefore he is as difficult to describe with any adequacy as a person in real life, and like most people, he is capable of surprising us.
On the other hand, Henkle in his book Reading the Novel (1977: 87-97) states that character can be described as major and secondary ones.
1. Major character
Major character is the most important and complex character in a novel. Major character can be identified as such through the complexity of his characterization, the attention given to him (by the author and by the other characters), and the personal intensity that seems to transmit. It is the major character who deserves our fullest attention because he performs a key structural function, that is upon him we
2. Secondary character
Secondary character is character that performs more limited functions. He may be less sophisticated, therefore his response to the experience is less complex and interesting. In order to understanding the character, according to Barnet,Berman,&Burto in their book Literature for Composition, there are some factor to be considered when we want to see the character involved in a story (1988: 712), those are : i. What the character says.
What the character says can give a clue how the author describes him, for instance, whether he is a kind or bad person, educated or uneducated person, etc. ii. What the character does.
By seeing what the character does, we are able to know whether he is from upper or lower class, he is kind or bad person. iii. What other character say about the character. What other characters say about the character is needed to get an additional information and clear description about his character in the story. iv. What others do
The action of others may help to indicate what the character could do but he does not do. It is very important to know his character such as lazy, wicked, careless While M.J. Murphy’s in Understanding Unseens : An Introduction to English Poetry
and the English Novel for Overseas Student (1972: 161-173) said that there are nine
ways in which an author attempts to make his characters understandable to and come alive for his reader.
1. Personal description Personal description means that the author can describe a person’s appearance and clothes in the story.
2. Characters as seen by another Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe him through the eyes and opinions of another.
3. Speech It is important way that may be used to describe of character. The author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what the person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us come clues to his character.
4. Past life By letting the readers learn something about a person’s past life, the author can give done by direct comment by the author, through the person’s thought, through his conversation or through the medium of another person.
5. Conversation of other.
We can take clues of a person’s character through the conversations of the other people and the things they say about him. People do talk about other people and the thing they say often gives us a clue to the character of the person spoke about.
6. Reactions Through the person’s reaction to various situations and events, the author can also give us a clue to know a person’s character.
7. Direct comment The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.
8. Thoughts The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. It this respect, he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He can tell us what different people are thinking.
9. Mannerism The author can describe a person’s mannerism and habit which may also tell us something about his character.
Theory of representation is based on the major theorist of postmodernism which proposed by the contemporary French writer Jean Baudrillad. Baudrillad is associated with what is usually known as ‘the loss of the real’, which is the view that in contemporary life the pervasive influence of images from film, TV and advertising has led to a loss of the distinctions between the real and imagined, reality and illusion, surface and depth. The result is a culture of ‘hyperreality’, in which distinctions between these are eroded. His propositions are worked out in his essay ‘Simulacra and Simulations’. He begins by evoking a past era of ‘fullness’, when a sign was a surface indication of an underlying depth of reality (‘an outward sign of inward grace’). But what, he ask, if a sign is not an index of an underlying reality, but merely of other signs? Then the whole system becomes what he calls a simulacrum. He then subtitutes for representation the notion of simulation. The sign reaches its present stage of emptiness in a series of steps (Barry, 1995: 87).
Firstly, the sign represents a basic reality. The example of this is the representations of the industrial city of Salford in the work of the twentieth-century British artist L.S. Lowry. Mid-century life for working people in such a place was hard, and the paintings have an air of monotony and repetitiveness – cowed, stick-like figures fill the streets, colors are muted, and the horizon filled with grim factory-like buildings. As sign, then, Lowry’s paintings seem to represent the basic reality of the place they depict (Barry, 1995: 87).
The second stage for the sign is that it misrepresents or distorts the reality behind it. As an example of this, the glamourised representation of cities like Liverpool masts silhoutted against the sky. Life in these places at that time was presumably grim, but the painting offer a romantic and glamourised image, so the sign can be said to misrepresent what it shows (Barry, 1995: 88).
The third stage for the sign is when the sign disguises the fact that there is no corresponding reality underneath. To illustrate, take a device used in the work of the surrealist artist Rene Margritte, where, in the painting, an easel with a painter’s canvas on it is shown standing alongside a window: on the canvas in the painting is painted the exterior scene which we can see through the window. But what is shown beyond the window is not reality, against which the painting within the paiting can be judged, but simply another sign, another depiction, which has no more authority or reality than the painting within the painting (which is actually a representation of representation) (Barry, 1995: 88).
Another example the third stages is Disneyland. In one way, it is a sign of course, it a sign of the second type, a mythologised misrepresentation of the United States. But, Disneyland is actually a ‘third-order simulation’ (a sign which conceal an absence). In a word, Disneyland has the effect of ‘concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle’. Within postmodernism, the distinction between what is real and what is simulated collapses : everything is a model or an image, all is surface without depth, this is the hyperreal as Baudrillard calls it (Barry, 1995: 89)
The fourth or the last stage for the sign is that it bears no relation to any reality at all. As an illustration of this stage we have simply to imagine a completely abstract painting, which is not representational at all, like one of the great purple mood canvases of Mark Rothko, for instance (Barry, 1995: 88).
3. Theory of Semiology
Semiology is the science which build base on the theories of language by Saussure. Saussure suggests the establishment of a science which would study the life of signs within society’ and semiology was to be the mechanism for applying the structural model of language across all signifying systems and for providing a method of analysis that would be ‘scientific’ and precise (Turner, 2003: 13). Semiology not only influence by Saussure but also by the writing of the French critics and semiologist, Roland Barthes. Through his ‘Mythologies’ and ‘Writing Degree Zero’, he constructs some theories about interpreting popular culture.
Semiology argues that material reality can never be taken for granted. It is always constructed and made intelligible to human understanding by culturally scientific systems of meaning. This meaning is never ‘innocent’, but has some particular purpose or interest lying behind it, which semiology can uncover. Our experience of the world is never ‘innocent’ because systems of meaning make sure it is intelligible. There is no such thing as a pure, uncoded, objective experience of a real and objective world.
The latter exist but its intelligibility depends upon codes of meaning or systems sign, such as language. These codes and signs are not universally given, but are historically and socially specific to the particular interest and purposes which lie behind it. According to Barthes, it is manufactured out of historically shifting system of codes, conventions and sign, that is why Barthes called it as the process of signification. which they are to be found. Rather, they present themselves as universal when they are really historically and socially fixed. As Barthes writes in Mythologies, the function of myth is to ‘transform history into nature’ (Strinati, 2003: 98).
Barthes explained further through his analysis in French classicism and ‘Writing Degree Zero’. According to Barthes, the French classical style is rhetorical in character, motivated by the ‘permanent intention to persuade’. It is the style of the law courts and political campaign, aimed at changing opinions and ensuring the acceptance of the bourgeois view of the world. It has thus not simply been a reflection of reality but an attempt to shape conception of reality. It has not been neutral and universal, nor natural and inevitable, but historically specific and socially constructed, rooted in a particular set of class interests. Its meaning has not been given but produced, not ‘innocent’ but ‘guilty’. French classicism is another ‘myth’, which tries to transform the historical into natural in the interest of the bourgeois class (Strinati, 2003: 99).