Theory of Literature

THEORY OF LITERATURE:
AN INTRODUCTION
A Handbook For English Department Undergraduate Students

Faculty of Letters and Humanities
UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya
By
Itsna Syahadatud Dinurriyah, M. A
Supported by:
Government of Indonesia (GoI) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB)
digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

FOREWORDS
BY
THE RECTOR OF UIN SUNAN AMPEL
Based on the decree of Ministry of National Education (MoNE) No.

232/U/ 2000 about curriculum in higher education and evaluation, and No.
045/ U/ 2002 about the core curriculum in higher education, and No. 353
2004 about curriculum design in higher education, State Institute of Islamic
Studies Sunan Ampel Surabaya publishes students’ handbooks as a part of
the effort to improve the profesionalism of the lecturers.
To publish high quality handbooks, Islamic State University (UIN)

Sunan Ampel Surabaya in cooperation with the Goverment of Indonesia
(GoI) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB) conducted training on textbook
development and wokshop on textbook writing for the lecturers of UIN
Sunan Ampel. The output of the training and workshop is that many books
are produced by lecturers of 5 faculties in UIN Sunan Ampel.
Theory of Literature is one of the published books intended to be

used in semester 5. We expect that after the publication of this book, the
teaching and learning process is better, more efective, contextual, joyful
and students become more actively involved. Hence, it can increase the
quality of the students’ competence.
To the Government of Indonesia (GOI) and Islamic Development Bank

(IDB) which have given support, the facilitators and the writers who have
done to the best of their effort to publish this book, we are very grateful.
We hope that this textbook can help the students study Pragmatics more
effectively and make UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya have better academic
quality.
Rector of UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya
Prof. Dr. H. Abd. A’la, M.Ag.

NIP. 195709051988031002
ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, I would like to praise to the, Almighty, Allah

SWT. All my gratitude to be His for the strength and guidance
He gave to me. Without His help, mercy and blessing, I will
not be able to finish this writing and cannot gain my wishes.
I would like to express my special thanks to all my

colleagues in English Department. My acknowledgement is
also for all lecturers in Adab Faculty, IAIN Sunan Ampel
Surabaya, especially Murni Fidiyanti, M.A. as my great
company. I give my deepest gratitude for my beloved little
family. I thank them for their understanding, patience, and
praying. The support is really meaningful to me. For my little
angel, Thala, thank you for being not spoiled since having a
busy mother.
Itsna Syahadatud Dinurriyah
iii

TABLE OF CONTENT
Inside Title Page………………………………………….. i
Preface……………………………………………………. ii
Acknowledgment………………………………………… iii
Table of Content………………………………………….iv
Course Outline …………………………………………… vi
Chapter I: Introduction………………………………….. 1
Chapter II: Russian Formalism…………………………. 10
Chapter III: New Criticism……………………………… 16
Chapter IV: Structuralism ……………………………… 22
Chapter V: Reception Theory …………………….……. 31
Chapter VI: Existentialism……………………………… 38
Chapter VII: Marxism …………………….……………. 46
Chapter VIII: Psychoanalysis…………………………… 56
Chapter IX: Feminism ………………………………….. 65
Chapter X: Post Structuralism …………………………. 74
Chapter XI: Post Modernism …………………………… 85
Chapter XII: Post Colonialism…………………………... 93
Evaluation and Scoring………………………………….. 100
iv

Bibliography…………………………………………. 102
Curriculum Vitae of the Writer………………………. 104

Course Outline
A. DESCRIPTION
Theory of Literature is a main course which discuss about theories used in analyzing literary
works. This course emphasizes to the recent theories used by many critics. This course also gives
explanation and understanding to the students about the relationship of literary works and human
thought of civilization.
B. URGENCY
The students understand and comprehend the contemporary theories of literature and their
movement as well as the usage in analyzing literary works.
C. INDICATOR
No Base competence Indicator
1 Introduction to the course - explaining the general course of

Theory of Literature
- criticize the scope of the course
- analyzing the urgency of the course
2 - Russian Formalism - explaining the history, the idea and

the content of the theory
- describing the usage of the theory
3 New Criticism - explaining the history, the idea and

4 Structuralism - explaining the history, the idea and

5 Marxism - explaining the history, the idea and

6 Existentialism - explaining the history, the idea and

vi

7 Reception Theory - explaining the history, the idea and
8 Psychoanalysis - explaining the history, the idea and

9 Feminism - explaining the history, the idea and

10 Post Structuralism - explaining the history, the idea and

Deconstruction
11 Post Modernism - explaining the history, the idea and

12 Post colonialism - explaining the history, the idea and

vii

8

The Main Concept of Literary Theory
Chapter 1:
THE MAIN CONCEPT OF LITERARY
THEORY
Introduction
Learning literature is really complex. The complexity
comes from the way people try to appreciate the literary works.
When a person reads a novel, his or her position is not only
stucked to the story conveys in the text. His or her position as a
reader will make his or her imagination ‘go on vacation’ to
describe the detailed embodiment in the novel. This condition
make everybody has different way in enjoying the literary
works.
In this chapter, students will learn the basics of literature.
They must comprehend the idea of literature, how literature
existed, how to create it, how to appreciate it, and how to
analyze it as well as to criticize it.
The way they comprehend literature is also influenced by
the storage each person has. The storage they have can be from
their experience, their knowlegde, their educational background
or their imagination. It is undeniable that the quality of the
appreciation depends on the quality of the appreciator. The
more qualified he or she is the more capable the critique of
literary work he or she produced. Since quality is very
important, so a critic needs an appropriate theory to support his
idea. This book will explore some theories which are used in
some literary works analysis.
In this course, the class needs the LCD to show the slide
of presentation, some book related to the literature, some
literary works, white board and marker.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students comprehend the meaning of theory of
literature

Indicator
Students are able to:
1. Explain the meaning of theory of literature in general

2. criticize the objective and the scope of literary theory
3. analyze the urgent of the course for the students
Time:
2x50 minutes
Material:
1. A brief of theory
2. What is literature?
3. The importance of theory of literature
The Activity
Introductory (15 minutes)
1. Introduction
2. Making agreement
3. Explaining the objective
Whilst (80 minutes)
1. Explaining the material of the course
2. Making student groups
3. Answer and question
Closing (5 minutes)
1. Making some reviews of the ‘day’ material
Students’ assignment
Make a resume to the material!
The core of the material
THE MAIN CONCEPT OF LITERARY

THEORY
Literature, firstly, was acknowledged in the 3rd BC when
Aristoteles wrote his book entitled Poetica. This book explored
the theory of tragedy in drama. Basically, literary theory is a

branch of literature that explains about the prinsciples, laws,

categories, and criterias of literature which differ from those
which are not literature. So then, what is the difference? What is
literature, actually? And do we need the theory to analyze it?
Let we talk about them, one by one.
A Brief of Theory
Theory is not practice and in vice versa, but they are

related each other- need one another. There will be no theory if
there is no succesive practice. What I mean by succesive
practice here means an activity done for many times and by
many people. Theory cannot stand for isolation because it will
influence thought of many people. It will not be a theory if there
is no one supports it.
It is no doubt if a theory starts from guessing. Guessing is
a signal of speculation which encourages one’s mind to work
harder in seeking some possibilities. The speculation offers
some complexities, depends on what perspective the theorist
views the problem/event. Thus, from some perspectives the
theorist tries to evaluate it even though the effect will
intimidates him or her. Because of the effect of intimidating, the
theorist will have the vision or assumption that derives him in
giving his or her opinion. The opinion which is supported by
many people and can be analyzed called theory.
There are four characteristics of theory, they are:
1. Theory is interdisciplinary – discourse with effects outside an
original discipline.
2. Theory is analytical and speculative – an attempt to work out
what is involved in what we call sex or language or writing or
meaning or the subject.
3. Theory is a critique of common sense, of concepts taken as
natural.
4. Theory is reflexive, thinking about thinking, enquiry into the
categories we use in making sense of things, in literature and in
other discursive practices (Culler: 4)

In his book Literary Theory, David Carter stated that to

be scientific a theory must falsifiable. It must be so formulated
that it must be possible to predict under what circumstances it
could be proven false. It must also possible to present evidence
to demonstrate that it is true.
He also stated that there are two kinds of theories; they
are live theory and dead theory. Live theory is theory we
consciously consider when we make judgment; while dead
theory is theory which lies behind the assumption we hold when
we make judgment but which has become so integrated into our
common practice the we are no longer aware of it.
Sometimes, it is questioning why we need theory. In
spite of our reluctant of using it, theory sounds very convincing
and can prove vidality. Therefore Carter said that the necessary
of theory is being better and honest to be aware of the reason
why you do something than to be ignorant of them. Some
theorist also lead one to the conclusion that literary theory does
not really exist as an independent discipline. It must be connect
with other disciplines.
What is Literature?
It is not easy to define the meaning of literature. In the

past, people only knew that literature consisted of poems, prose
and drama, but nowadays that definition is too absurd. That
answer is only satisfied the question from an elementary school
student. Literature is too wide to be limited only by those
subjects. Abbas A. Badib stated that literature is a part of four
in rhetoric disciplines. It is under stylistics which is described as
the following table:

RHETORIC
PRAGMATIC DISCOURSE STYLISTICS DISPOSITO/

ELOCUTIO
LINGUISTICS LITERARY
CRITICISM
NON LITERARY TEXT LITERARY TEXT

AND SPEECHES
POLITICS NOVEL
RELIGION DRAMA
CULTURE POETRY
MASS MEDIA
From the scheme above, we understand that literature

built from the way people think and talk. Rhetoric is a
knowledge of language in which people use correctly then the
listeners do not misunderstand to the meaning. Yet, in the next
phase it is wider than only limited into the ability of speech.
Literature is seems as a product of human life. It exixts as part
of human culture; learning about cultural product is not as easy
as it produced. Although in some cases they agree that literature
is part of their life but it make them treat literature as difficult
subject. Some students seem agree with this idea. Therefore,
Matthew Arnold and TS. Eliot as the figures of american
literature stated,”Literature is not just a subject for academic
study, but one of the chief temples of human spirit, in which all
should worship, and it is an embodiment of the best thought of

the best minds, the most direct and lasting communication of

experience by man to man.
In Newbolt perspective, literature also has function of
creating a sense of national identity, serving to form a new
elemet of national unity, lingking together the mental life of all
classes. This fuction works in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s My
Kinsman Major Molineux and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self
Relience.
Pic 1. The canon literary work from Elizabethan era
Based on the root of the language, literature is rooted

from the word literate means capable to write and read. Then,
David carter defined it as all kinds of writing including history
and philosophy. He also said that literature is what a given
society at a given time considers it to be. It means that literary
works will reveal to us a certain society in a certain time so that
we are able to learn the history, civilization, philosophy,
thought and culture in that time. Carter also identify that in all
its forms literature treats of human life, its nature and problem,
its mode of existence, its ways of coexistence and thought and
its belief system.
There are five characteristics of literature, they are:
1. Mimetic
Literature is a reflection of society

2. Useful
Literature must be functional for the readers or appreciators to
understand in what condition the literature produced. It must
give a real description of the spirit of the era.
3. Fictionality
Words used in literature must be connotative and the story is
fictional
4. Art work
Literature is a work of art. People find the art values in it.
5. Part of society
Since, it is a reflection of society, literature must be part of the
real society.
Meanwhile the genres of literature are:

1. Imaginative literature
This genre tries to explain, explore, understand and open new
horizon as well as give meaning in human real life in order to
make man more understand and behave properly toward his
reality. The product of imaginative literature such as poetry
(epic, lyrics, and dramatic), prose (novel/roman, short story, and
novelet) and drama.
2. Non-imaginative literature
There are two characteristics of this genre, they are:
• Factual element is more dominant than the fantacy
• Language used is connotative better than denotative
The works are: essay, critics, biography, autobiography,

memoar, letters and speech.
Either imaginative or non-imaginative literature must

fulfil the requirements of art aestetic such as unity, balance,
harmony, and right emphasis.
The Importance of Theory of Literature
Everyone can enjoy the literary work. They also might

appreciate it in their perspective and critize it in their personal
view, so then the theory of literature is not important anymore.

If the discourse of literary criticism happens in public sphere

and does not have any relationship academically with higher
education, theory is merely an obstacle which gives them big
distance between literature and common people. Yet, if the
discourse of literary criticism happens in campus area, theory
will take the portion then.
Literature should be viewed in the writer’s background,
historical context, philosophical climate and practical criticism.
It could be evaluated by live theory and dead theory. Live
theory is the theory we consciously consider when making
judgements, mean while dead theory is the theory which lies
behind the assumptions we hold when making judgement but
which has become so integrated into our common practice that
we are no longer aware of it.
Pic 2. A popular literature in 21th century
In the way of evaluating literary work, so the

academicist needs the theory, especially the appropriate one, in
order to be appreciated academically. Like I mentioned before
that theory will make us being better and more honest to be
aware of the reason why we do something than to be ignorant of
them. By learning the theory of literature, we will comprehend

phenomena of human life embeded in literary theory and, in

vice versa, by comprehending the phenomena of human life in
literary theory we will understand the literary theory.
In the next chapter, some literary theories will be
revealed as guidance for student to analyze literary works by
using appropriate theory. All the theories will be in the
twenteeth century literaty theory.
Exercise!
1. What is literature?
2. Explain the characteristic of literature!
3. How does the theory form?
4. What is the effect of the theory?
5. How does Abbas Badib explore about literature?
6. How is the urgent of the theory for students of iterature?

Russian Formalism
Chapter 2:
RUSSIAN FORMALISM
Introduction
Russian formalism is the first contemporary theory in
literature born in Russia. It was influence by some experts who
thought that literature is a form of language. Therefore, the way
they analyze literary works is just like the way the analyze
linguistics.
In this chapter students will learn how formalism
influences many people in the early of twentieth century. They
also will comprehend the relationship between literature and
linguistics in the early of thought through formalism.
In this course students need to formulate the idea of
study by using LCD, computer, board maker and white board.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to identify some literary works
analyzed by Russian Formalism
Indicator
1. explain the history, the idea, and the content of
Russian Formalism
2. describe the usage of the theory in analyzing
literary work
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The history of Formalism
2. The Idea of Formalism
3. The Content of Formalism
13

Russian Formalism
The Activity
1. Write the topic of the day
2. Energizer
3. Convey the objective of the study
Whilst (75 minutes)
1. Ask the students to present the material
2. Discussing of the topic
Closing (10Minutes)
1. Reviewing students discussion
Students assignment
Find the literary works analyzed by Russian Formalism!
The Core of the Material
RUSSIAN FORMALISM
The History
Russian Formalism was established in 1915- before

Russian Revolution in 1917. It was pioneered by Opojaz (The
Society for the Study of Poetic Language) in which the
prominent figures are Viktor Shklovsky, Yury Tynyanov and
Boris Eikhenbaum. The leading figures of the former
movement of Russian Formalism were Roman Jakobson and
Petr Bogatyrev, who both later helped to found the Prague
Linguistic Circle in 1926 (Selden: 30).
At first, the Formalism developed freely, especially

between 1921 and 1925 when the weary USSR was emerging
from ‘War Communism’. Non-proletarian economics and
literature were allowed to flourish during this breathing space,
and by 1925 formalism was the dominant method in literary
scholarship. Trotsky’s sophisticated criticisms of formalism in
(1924) ushered in a defensive phase, culminating in the
Jakobson/Tynyanov theses (1928). Some regard the later
14

Russian Formalism
developments as signalling the defeat of pure formalism and a

capitulation to the Communist ‘social command’( Selden: 31).
The Idea
The Russian Formalists were much more interested in

‘method’, much more concerned to establish a ‘scientific’ basis
for the theory of literature. They thought that literature is a
special use of language which achieve its distinctness by
deviating and distorting ‘practical language’. They were not
interested in the perception which produces ‘defamiliarization’
(Selden:29-31). Therefore, Russian Formalism was more
interested in analysis of form, the structure of a text and its use
of language, than in the content.
Pic 3. A literature was born from the condition of society
Russian Formalism wanted to establish a scientific basis

for the study of literature. They believe that human emotions
and ideas expressed in a work of literature were of secondary
concern and provided the context only for the implementation
of literary devices. By that idea, Russian Formalism tend to the
text as the main sourse of literature.
15

Russian Formalism
The content
Since it wanted to establish a scientific basis for the

study of literature, Russian Formalism treated literature as three
phases. The first phase regarded literature as a kind of machine
with various devices and functioning parts. The second phase
considered literature as an ‘organism’; and the third phase saw
literature texts as ‘systems’. It also differenciate art and non-art
work. Literature was considered as the art work.
The Russian Formalists, however, stress that only ‘plot’
(sjuzet) is strictly literary, while ‘story’ ( fabula) is merely raw
material awaiting the organizing hand of the writer. The plot of
it is not merely the arrangement of story-incidents but also all
the ‘devices’ used to interrupt and delay the narration. In a
sense, ‘plot’, is actually the violation of the expected formal
arrangements of incidents. In this case, Tomashevski stated that
one fabula can provide material for many sjuzet, a notion
which was taken up by later formalist and was also to provide a
link with structuralism. A further concept within Russian
Formalist narrative theory is ‘motivation’. Tomashevski called
the smallest unit of plot is ‘motif’, which we may understand as
a single statement or action. He makes a distinction between
‘bound’ and ‘free’ motifs. A bound motif is one which is
required by the story, while a ‘free’ motif is inessential from
the point of view of the story. However, from the literary point
of view, the ‘free’ motifs are potentially the focus of art (
Selden: 35). For example, Hester Praine’s bravery as a married
woman to sail to America without her husband companion. Her
‘lonely’ present in New World brought her to some stories
(fabula) even the plot (sjuzet) in the novel of Scarlet Letter. In
Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth presence in some parties is only
fabula but her prejudice to Darcy takes big portion in making
sjuzet.
16

Russian Formalism
Pic 4. Jane Austen’s work
Another figure of formalist is Jan Mukarovski. He

developed Shlovsky’s concept of defamiliarisation by using the
term foregrounding. He defined it as the aesthetically
intentional distortion og the literary components. For him,
foregrounding has the effect of automatizing other aspects of
the text in close proximity to it. He argued that aesthetic
function cannot exist in isolation from its place and time, nor
without considering the person evaluating it.
In 1920s, Mikhail Bakhtin began to take a critical stance

against Russian Formalism by having Bakhtin school. He was
influence by Marxist even though he also differed from that
theory. For him, ideology is not a reflex of socio-economic
conditions but is conditioned by the medium through language;
and language is a material reality. The meanings of words
change according to the different social and historical situations
in which they are used. Multiple meaning or heteroglossia is
common in literary works. He also wrote: ‘To a greater or
lesser extent, every novel is a dialogized system made up of the
image of “language”, style and consciousness that are concrete
but inseparable from language. Language in the novel not only
represents, but itself serves as the object of representation.
Novelistic discourse is always criticizing itself.’
17

Russian Formalism
Exercise
1. What is Opojaz?
2. How do you distinguish sjuzet and fabula?
3. What is defamiliarisation?
4. what is the function of formalism they think?
18

New Criticism
Chapter 3:
NEW CRITICISM
Introduction
New Criticism is a new formula of Russian Formalism.
This formula developed very well in America. The
development was not only the influence given by formalism
but also the different technique used in the new theory.
In this chapter, students will understand the ‘journey’ of
the theory started from formalism to the new criticism. In the
end of the course, students will know how to distinguish both
of them.
Like usual, in this course, the class will used LCD,
computer, board maker, and whiteboard as well as the example
of analyses written by some experts.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to distinguish and criticize Russian
Formalism and New Criticism
Indicator

1. Explore the history, the idea, and the content of the
theory
2. Describe the usage of the theory
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The History of New Criticism
2. The Idea of New Criticism
3. The Content of New Criticism
16

New Criticism
The Activity
Introductory (15minutes)
1. Write the topic of the day
2. Energizer
3. Convey the objective of the material
Whilst (75minutes)
1. Ask the students to present the material
2. discussion
Closing (10 minutes)
1. review the students discussion
Students assignment
Make a comparison between New Criticism and Russian
Formalism!
NEW CRITICISM
The History
American New Criticism, emerging in the 1920s and

especially dominant in the 1940s and 1950s, is equivalent to
the establishing of the new professional criticism in the
emerging discipline of ‘English’ in British higher education
during the inter-war period. As always, origins and
explanations for its rise – in its heyday to almost hegemonic
proportions – are complex and finally indefinite, but some
suggestions may be sketched in.
First, a number of the key figures were also part of a
group called the Southern Agrarians, or ‘Fugitives’, a
traditional, conservative, Southern-oriented movement which
was hostile to the hard-nosed industrialism and materialism of
a United States dominated by ‘the North’. Without stretching
the point too far, a consanguinity with Matthew Arnold, TS.
Eliot and, later, FR. Leavis in his opposition to modern
‘inorganic’ civilization may be discerned here. Second, New
17

New Criticism
Criticism’s high point of influence was during the Second

World War and the Cold War succeeding it, and we may see
that its privileging of literary texts (their ‘order’, ‘harmony’ and
‘transcendence’ of the historically and ideologically
determinate) and of the ‘impersonal’ analysis of what makes
them great works of art (their innate value lying in their
superiority to material history: see below Cleanth Brooks’s
essay about Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’) might represent a
haven for alienated intellectuals and, indeed, for whole
generations of quietistic students. Third, with the huge
expansion of the student population in the States in this period,
catering for second-generation products of the American
‘melting pot’, New Criticism with its ‘practical criticism’ basis
was at once pedagogically economical (copies of short texts
could be distributed equally to everyone) and also a way of
coping with masses of individuals who had no ‘history’ in
common. In other words, its ahistorical, ‘neutral’ nature – the
study only of ‘the words on the page’ – was an apparently
equalizing, democratic activity appropriate to the new
American experience (Selden: 18-20).
The idea
Like stated in the history above that the famous figures

of New Criticism were Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot and IA.
Richard, so then this book must conveys the reason of their
participation. Matthew Arnold stated that the persistence of
English culture were being encourage by the rise of a middle
class obsessed with material wealth. He defined culture as the
best that has been thought and said in the world. Culture
encourages the growth and predominance of our humanity
proper as distinguished from our animality. Arnold saw
literature as the domain of high-minded intellectual and his
definition excluded the writing of a large part of the populace.
In short, Arnold considered that culture was the important role
in making humanity, and it influenced literature.
18

New Criticism
Pic 5. Learning humanity from literature
T.S. Eliot made poetry to his theory and focused

specifically on the poem as a text. Poetry should be impersonal.
A poet did not have ‘a personality’ to express but a particular
medium. Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion but an escape
from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an
escape from personality. Objective correlation which are a set
of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the
formula of that particular emotion. Emotion should be
conveyed indirectly. His theory influenced I.A. Richard and
F.R. Leavis later on.
I.A. Richard argued that criticism should emulate the
precision of science and differentiate the ‘emotive’ language of
poetry from the ‘referential’ language of non-literary works. He
said literature helps us to evaluate our personal experiences. It
conveys a certain type of knowledge which is not factual or
scientific but concerned with values.
19

New Criticism
Pic 6. The humanity and inhumanity in literature
Wayne C. Booth, who nevertheless acknowledged that

he was a Chicago Aristotelian. Booth’s project was to examine
‘the art of communicating with readers – the rhetorical
resources available to the writer of epic, novel or short story as
he tries, consciously or unconsciously, to impose his fictional
world upon the reader’. Although accepting in New Critical
terms that a novel is an ‘autonomous’ text, Booth develops a
key concept with the notion that it nevertheless contains an
authorial ‘voice’ – the ‘implied author’ (his or her‘official
scribe’ or ‘second self’) – whom the reader invents by
deduction from the attitudes articulated in the fiction. Once this
distinction between author and the ‘authorial voice’ is made,
the way is open to analyse, in and for themselves, the many and
various forms of narration which construct the text (Selden: 22
-23).
The Content
New Criticism wants to explore what is specifically

literary in texts, and it rejects the limp spirituality of late
Romantic poetics in favour of a detailed and empirical
approach to reading (Selden: 29). Even though it tends to the
text, New Criticism does not ignone cultural and moral values
20

New Criticism
in literary work. Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of american

novelist who was success in giving vivid description in moral
and cultural values. In Scarlet Letter, he explored the condition
of first American immigrant and how they run their life. It
shows the cultural aspect American had. He also examined
moral values by religious agent by exploring the adultery done
by Hester Praine and Rochester and how Hester covered it for
Rochester’s esteem.
Pic 7. Another side of humanity in literary work
Leavis stated if a novel reveals true and vivid

relationship, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationship
may consist in. He also said that the values of literary work aim
‘to be alive, to be man alive, to be whole man alive: that is the
point. And at its best, the novel, and the novel supremely can
help you’.
Exercise
1. How did New Criticism develop in America?

2. How does it distinguish from Russian Formalism?
3. How does it use in analyzing literary work?
21

Structuralism
Chapter 4:
STRUCTURALISM
Introduction
Structuralism is the third theory students learn in this
semester. In this theory, students learn a lot about the formula
and the usage to analyze literary works. Since structuralism still
use the formula of the work, so then the students must know
what is the different among three theories.
In this course, students will need the example of the
analyses, LCD, computer, board maker and white board.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to criticize the theory and the previous
theory related to intrinsic elements
Indicator
1. Explain the history, the idea and the content of the
theory
2. Use the theory in analyzing literary works
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The history of Structuralism
2. The idea of Structuralism
3. The Content of Structuralism
The Activity
Introductory (15minutes)
1. Write the topic in the whiteboard
2. Energizer
3. Convey the objective of the study
4. Make some review of the previous lesson
Whilst (75minutes)
1. Point some students to present the material
22

Structuralism
2. Discussion
3. Lecturer guides the discussion
Closing (10minutes)
1. Guide the students to make conclusion
Students assignment
Make mind map of structuralism!
STRUCTURALISM
The History
In a 1968 essay, Roland Barthes put the structuralist

view very powerfully, and argued that writers only have the
power to mix already existing writings, to reassemble or
redeploy them; writers cannot use writing to ‘express’
themselves, but only to draw upon that immense dictionary of
language and culture which is ‘always already written’ (to use a
favourite Barthesian phrase). It was known as the death of the
author. It would not be misleading to use the term ‘anti-
humanism’ to describe the spirit of structuralism. Indeed the
word has been used by structuralists themselves to emphasize
their opposition to all forms of literary criticism in which the
human subject is the source and origin of literary meaning
(Selden: 63).
The one proposed a theory which became the bridge
between Russian Formalism and Structuralism was Roman
Jakobson. He was the founder member of the Moscow
Linguistic Circle and all his writings reveal the centrality of
linguistic theory in his thought and especially the influence of
Saussure. He argues even when we transpose a work of
literature from medium to another, such as from novel into
film, certain structural features are preserved despite the
disappearance of their verbal shape. Jakobson regarded that
23

Structuralism
foregrounding element in literature as dominant. He defined the

dominant as the most important concept for formalist and the
focusing component of a work of art; it rules, determines and
transforms the remaining components. Literary forms change
and develop as a result of a ‘shifting dominant’. He believed
that the literary theory of a particular period might be governed
by a dominant which derives from non-literary system.
The figures structuralism are Ferdinand de Sausure,
Roland Barthes, Greimas, and Levis Strauss.
The Idea
The work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure,

compiled and published after his death in a single book, Course
in General Linguistics (1915), has been profoundly influential
in shaping contemporary literary theory. Saussure’s two key
ideas provide new answers to the questions ‘What is the object
of linguistic investigation?’ and ‘What is the relationship
between words and things?’ He makes a fundamental
distinction between langue and parole –between the language
system, which pre-exists actual examples of language, and the
individual utterance. Langue is the social aspect of language: it
is the shared system which we (unconsciously) draw upon as
speakers. Parole is the individual realization of the system in
actual instances of language (Selden: 63).
24

Structuralism
Pic 8. Ferdinand de Saussure, The pioneer of

structuralism
Literary structuralism flourished in the 1960s as an

attempt to apply to literature the methods and insights of the
founder of modern structural linguistics, Ferdinand de
Saussure. Saussure viewed language as a system of signs,
which was to be studied 'synchronically' that is to say, studied
as a complete system at a given point in time - rather than
'diachronically', in its historical development. Each sign was to
be seen as being made up of a 'signifier' (a sound-image, or its
graphic equivalent), and a 'signified' (the concept or meaning).
Structuralism in general is an attempt to apply this linguistic
theory to objects and activities lither than language itself.
(Eagleton: 84). It views literary texts 'structurally', and
suspends attention to the referent to examine the sign itself, but
it is not particularly concerned with meaning as differential or,
in much of its work, with the 'deep' laws and structures
underlying literary texts ( Eagleton: 85).
25

Structuralism
The Content
Saussure rejected the idea that language is a word-heap

gradually accumulated over time and that its primary function
is to refer to things in the world. In his view, words are not
symbols which correspond to referents, but rather are ‘signs’
which are made up of two parts (like two sides of a sheet of
paper): a mark, either written or spoken, called a ‘signifier’,
and a concept (what is ‘thought’ when the mark is made),
called a ‘signified’ (Selden: 63).
Saussure’s model is as follows:
SIGN = signifier
signified
signifier (‘red’)
signified (stop)
The relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary:

there is no natural bond between red and stop, no matter how
natural it may feel (64). In this case, the role of context
becomes very important because the meaning is perceived not
through the word’s relation to something but in understanding
it as part of system of relationships, as part of a sign-system.
Since it discussed a lot about sign, then, structuralism
turns into semiotics in literary theory. Structuralism is the
method of investigation; whereas semiotics can be describe as
field of study. Its field is that of sign system.
The American founder of semiotics, the philosopher C.
S. Peirce, distinguished between three basic kinds of sign.
There was the 'iconic', where the sign somehow resembled
what it stood for (a photograph of a person, for example); the
'indexical', in which the sign is somehow associated with what
it is a sign of (smoke with fire, spots with measles), and the
'symbolic', whereas with Saussure the sign is only arbitrarily or
conventionally linked with its referent. Semiotics takes up this
and many other classifications: it distinguishes between
26

Structuralism
'denotation' (what the sign stands for) and 'connotation' (other

signs associated with it); between codes (the rule-governed
structures which produce meanings) and the messages
transmitted by them; between the 'paradigmatic' (a whole class
of signs which may stand in for one an other) and the
'syntagmatic' (where signs are coupled together with each other
in a 'chain'). It speaks of 'metalanguages', where one sign-
system denotes another sign-system (the relation between
literary criticism and literature, for instance), 'polysemic' signs
which have more than one meaning, and a great many other
technical concepts (Eageton: 87-88).
These terms were generally adopted by semioticians and
further classifications were developed. What a sign stands for is
called ‘denotation’ and what other signs are associated with it
is ‘connotation’.There are also ‘paradigmatic’ signs, which
may replace each other in the system, and ‘syntagmatic’ signs,
which are linked together in a chain. A sign system which
refers to another sign system is called a ‘metalanguage’
(literary theory itself is a good example of this).And signs
which have more than one meaning are called
‘polysemic’.With this short list the range of terminology is not
exhausted.(Carter: 45)
Pic 9. What is the indication in this literary work?
27

Structuralism
In poetry, it is the nature of the signifier, the patterns of

sound and rhythm set up by the marks on the page themselves,
which determines what is signified. A poetic text is
'semantically saturated', condensing more 'information' than
any other discourse; but whereas for modern communication
theory in general an increase in 'information' leads to a
decrease in 'communication' , this is not so in poetry because
ofits unique kind of internal organization. Poetry has a
minimum of 'redundancy' of those signs which are present in a
discourse to facilitate communication rather than convey
information - but still manages to produce a richer set of
messages than any other form of language (Eagleton: 88).
The science of such systems is called ‘semiotics’ or
‘semiology’. It is usual to regard structuralism and semiotics as
belonging to the same theoretical universe. Structuralism, it
must be added, is often concerned with systems which do not
involve ‘signs’ as such (kinship relations, for example, thus
indicating its equally important origins in anthropology but
which can be treated in the same way as sign-systems ( Selden:
64).
The term ‘semiotics’ (or the alternative term
‘semiology’) is frequently used in close association with the
theory of structuralism. It has been argued that literary
structuralists are really engaging in semiotics, so some
distinctions should be made clear. Structuralism is, strictly
speaking, a method of investigation, whereas semiotics can be
described as a field of study. Its field is that of sign systems
(Carter: 45).
Structuralist narrative theory develops from certain
elementary linguistic analogies. Syntax (the rules of sentence
construction) is the basic model of narrative rules. Todorov and
others talk of ‘narrative syntax’. The most elementary syntactic
division of the sentence unit is between subject and predicate:
‘The knight (subject) slew the dragon with his sword
(predicate).’ Evidently this sentence could be the core of an
episode or even an entire tale. If we substitute a name
28

Structuralism
(Launcelot or Gawain) for ‘the knight’, or ‘axe’ for ‘sword’, we

retain the same essential structure.(67)
A.J. Greimas developed the theory to be applicable to
various genres. His approach was based on a semantic analysis
of sentence structure. He proposed three pairs of binary
opposition. The pairs describe three basic patterns which
perhaps recur in all narrative:
1 Desire, search, or aim (subject/object).
2 Communication (sender/receiver).
3 Auxiliary support or hindrance (helper/opponent)
At this point, the reader may well object that structuralist
poetics seems to have little to offer the practising critic, and it
is perhaps significant that fairy stories, myths and detective
stories often feature as examples in structuralist writings. Such
studies aim to define the general principles of literary structure
and not to provide interpretations of individual texts.
Thus a given sentence may be viewed either vertically or
horizontally:
1. Each element is selected from a set of possible
elements and could be substituted for another in the set.
2. The elements are combined in a sequence, which
constitutes a parole.
Besides turns into semiotics, structuralism also deviated
into narrative structuralism. Gerard Genette exposed three
levels of story (fabula). They are tense, mood and voice. Tense
is readily understood by its reference to situating the story
and/or narration in present or past time. Mood and voice are
important in analyzing the point of view in a text. Mood refers
to to the perspective from which events are viewed which may
actually be described by different narrative voice.
He also formulated a distinction between two different
kinds of relation between narrator and character in terms of
binary opposition: homodiegetic narrative (narrator tells us
about him/herself) and heterodegenetic narrative (narrator tells
us about the third person).
Another part of his theory he explored and criticized
three pairs of commonly binary opposition in a way which
29

Structuralism
prefigures the approach of deconstructive theory. The first

opposition is diegesis (the author speaking in his own voice)
and mimesis (representation of what someone else actually
said); the second opposition is between narration (telling about
the action and events in the story) and description (the very
choice of nouns and verbs in sentence telling of an action) and
the third opposition is between narrative ( a pure telling of a
story uninfluenced by the subjectivity of the author) and
discourse (reader is aware of the nature of the teller).
Exercise
1. What is structuralism?
2. What is the different between parole and langue?
3. How do you explain of arbitrary?
4. What is signifier and signified?
5. How does structuralism go to narratology?
6. What is semiotics?
30

Reception Theory
Chapter 5:
RECEPTION THEORY
Introduction
Reception theory, in this book, is the first theory which
shows the real literary theory. Even though, previously, it was
born from hermeneutics which contains of religious aspects but
in the reality this theory develop into the history and the
development of humanism.
Students will understand the idea of reception theory
based on the history and they are not judge the theory just by
knowing from religious perspective. In this course, students
will need the example of the analyses, LCD, computer, board
maker and white board.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students comprehend the usage of the theory and explain
some kinds of the theory
Indicator
1. Explain the history, the idea and the content of the
theory
2. Describe the usage of the theory in analyzing
literary work
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The History of Reception Theory
2. The Idea of Reception Theory
3. The Content of Reception Theory
31

Reception Theory
The Activity
1. Show the slide of the topic of the day
2. Energizer
3. Explaining the objective of the lesson
Whilst (75 minutes)

1. Dividing the student into 4 or 5 groups
2. Assign them to make mind map of the topic
3. Ask each group to present their mind map
1. Review the students presentation
2. Make conclusion
Make some questions to be answered by other groups!
RECEPTION THEORY
The History
Reception theory happened because of the influence of

hermeneutics. As we know that hermeneutics theory was
originally used in religious matter. Hermeneutics is a science of
interpretation which was, at that time, used to understand some
verses in holy book (Bible). The Priests used this method to
explain some difficult sentences through their sermons. But
since 19th century, this theory has been used in general
discipline including the theory of literature.
Since this theory gives us freedom in interpreting works,
hermeneutics is a gate for the readers to appreciate literary
works and analyze them on their view. Hans Georg Gadamer
was one hermeneutics figure who said whatever the inventions
of the authors of literary works, the meaning of them is never
32

Reception Theory
exhausted by consideration of them. He also stated that a work

is not static but passes through various cultural and historical
contexts. Therefore, in giving the meaning of works the readers
must understand the culture and the history lies in the works.
Besides Gadamer, there was other figure, Hirsch. He
distinguished the meaning and significance. For him, meaning
remain unchanged while significance can change as the
historical context change.
From this theory, the reception theory in theory of
literature occurred.
Pic 10. So then, what do you think about this novel?
The Idea
Reception theory believes that each reader will

appreciate literary works based on their storage. The storage
they have could be from the experience, knowledge, history or
culture they have. Therefore, this theory focus on the way a
work of literature is received by its reader.
Reader maybe unaware of the fact but in the process of

reading, they are constantly making hypotheses about the
meanig of what they are reading. As reading proceeds, readers’
33

Reception Theory
expectation and projections are modified by further discoveries

in the text. It will lead the readers to be critical.
The Content
Reception theory could start from Jakobson’s model of

linguistic communication.
CONTEXT
ADDRESSER > MESSAGE > ADDRESSEE
CONTACT
CODE
Addresser as the author of literary work will contact the

addressee as the reader. The contact is the literary work itself.
Inside of it there is a message for the addressee. However, to
understand the message the addressee must be familiar with the
codes. If they understand the code well, the reader can analyze
or criticize the work based on the context they are familiar
with.
Yet, what Jacobson wrote as a model is really formalist.
Indeed, he himself is formalist. However, if we reject
formalism and adopt the perspective of the reader or audience,
the whole orientation of Jakobson’s diagram changes. From
this angle, we can say that the poem has no real existence until
it is read; its meaning can only be discussed by its readers. We
differ about interpretations only because our ways of reading
differ. It is the reader who applies the code in which the
message is written and in this way actualizes what would
otherwise remain only potentially meaningful. If we consider
the simplest examples of interpretation, we see that the
addressee is often actively involved in constructing a meaning.
The meaning of the text is never self-formulated; the
reader must act upon the textual material in order to produce
meaning. Wolfgang Iser argues that literary texts always
contain ‘blanks’ which only the reader can fill. The ‘blank’
between the two stanzas of Wordsworth’s poem arises because
34

Reception Theory
the relationship between the stanzas is unstated. The act of

interpretation requires us to fill this blank. A problem for
theory centres on the question of whether or not the text itself
triggers the reader’s act of interpretation, or whether the
reader’s own interpretative strategies impose solutions upon the
problems thrown up by the text. Even before the growth of
reader-response theory, semioticians had developed the field
with some sophistication. Umberto Eco’s The Role of the
Reader argues that some texts are ‘open’ and invite the reader’s
collaboration in the production of meaning, while others are
‘closed’ (comics, detective fiction) and predetermine the
reader’s response. He also speculates on how the codes
available to the reader determine what the text means as it is
read.
Pic 11. Another reader’s appreciation of literary work
The narratee is also distinguished from the ‘virtual

reader’ (the sort of reader whom the author has in mind when
developing the narrative) and the ‘ideal reader’ (the perfectly
insightful reader who understands the writer’s every move).
we understand that the narratees here are people who,
like the narrator, recognize the fallibility of all human beings,
even the most pious. There are many ‘signals’, direct and
35

Reception Theory
indirect, which contribute to our knowledge of the narratee.

The assumptions of the narratee may be attacked, supported,
queried or solicited by the narrator who will thereby strongly
imply the narratee’s character. When the narrator apologizes
for certain inadequacies in the discourse (‘I cannot convey this
experience in words’), this indirectly tells us something of the
narratee’s susceptibilities and values. Even in a novel which
appears to make no direct reference to a narratee we pick up
tiny signals even in the simplest of literary figures.
Wolfgang Iser confirmed that to read and understand a
work, readers must be familiar with the codes it employs well.
An affective work of literature forces the readers to become
critical aware of familiar codes which leads the readers
question the validity. Therefore, for Iser, there is no one correct
interpretation but a valid interpretation must be internally
consistence.
The second figure of this theory is Hans Jauss. Jauss, an
important German exponent of ‘reception’ theory
(Rezeptionästhetik), gave a historical dimension to reader-
oriented criticism. He tried to achieve a compromise between
Russian Formalism which ignores history, and social theories
which ignore the text. Writing during a period of social unrest
at the end of the 1960s, Jauss and others wanted to question the
old canon of German literature and to show that it was
perfectly reasonable to do so. The older critical outlook had
ceased to make sense in the same way that Newton’s physics
no longer seemed adequate in the early twentieth century. He
borrows from the philosophy of science (T. S. Kuhn) the term
‘paradigm’ which refers to the scientific framework of concepts
and assumptions operating in a particular period. ‘Ordinary
science’ does its experimental work within the mental world of
a particular paradigm, until a new paradigm displaces the old
one and throws up new problems and establishes new
assumptions. Jauss uses the term ‘horizon of expectations’ to
describe the criteria readers use to judge literary texts in any
given period. These criteria will help the reader decide how to
judge a poem as, for example, an epic or a tragedy or a
36

Reception Theory
pastoral; it will also, in a more general way, cover what is to be

regarded as poetic or literary as opposed to unpoetic or
nonliterary uses of languages. Ordinary writing and reading
will work within such a horizon. For example, if we consider
the English Augustan period, we might say that Pope’s poetry
was judged according to criteria which were based upon values
of clarity, naturalness and stylistic decorum (the words should
be adjusted according to the dignity of the subject). However,
this does not establish once and for all the value of Pope’s
poetry. During the second half of the eighteenth century,
commentators began to question whether Pope was a poet at all
and to suggest that he was a clever versifier who put prose into
rhyming couplets and lacked the imaginative power required of
true poetry. Leapfrogging the nineteenth century, we can say
that modern readings of Pope work within a changed horizon of
expectations: we now often value his poems for their wit,
complexity, moral insight and their renewal of literary
tradition.
While Stanley Fish proposed Affective stylistics. He
examined readers’ expectation on the level of the sentence and
argued that we use the meaning strategies in understanding
both literary and non-literary work.
The last figure is Riffaterre. He emphasized this theory
to be used in poem. For him, readers must know how to deal
with ungrammatical factors and this means developing a
special competence.
Exercise
1. How did reception theory happen?

2. How is the role of readers in this theory?
3. How does this theory measure the objectivity?
4. What did Wolfgang Iser state about this theory?
5. How did Jauss define reception theory?
6. Why is formalism very important in this theory?
7. Who are other figures in this theory? What are their
statements?
37

Existentialism
Chapter 6:
EXISTENTIALISM
Introduction
Existentialism is a theory which is influenced by

phenomenology. Immanuel Kant had introduced the distinction
between phenomenon and noumenon. Both of them must be
realized by human consciousness. It will lead to human
experience.
Existensialism is a philosophy that believes individual

on their responsibility to be free without thinking which one is
right or wrong. Actually it is not because they do not know the
right or wrong but the existentialist believes the truth is
relative, and therefore, each individual is free choosing their
way.
In understanding this theory, besides material, the class

needs computer and LCD to see the power point and video,
white board and board marker.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to define the usage of existentialism
as philosophy and as literary theory.
Indicator
a. Understand the history, idea and the contentment of the theory

of existentialism
b. Describe the usage of the theory in analyzing literary works.
Time
2x50 minutes
38

Existentialism
Material
1. The history of Existentialism
2. The Idea of Existentialism
3. The Content of Existentialism
The Activity
1. Showing the title of the topic through power point
2. Energizer
3. Telling the objective of the lesson
Whilst (80minutes)
1. Brainstorming
2. Giving some case studies to students to be discussed
3. Help the students to get the solution
4. Find the analysis
1. Get the conclusion
2. Feedback
Find literary work that can be analyzed using
existentialism!
EXISTENTIALISM
The History
In the 19th century, Soren Keikergard appeared as the

pioner of this theory. It was strengthened by Martin Heidegger
and Karl Jesper in the 20th century. Then, the theory developed
by some figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir,
and Albert Camus, and Nietzshe.
39

Existentialism
pic 12. Albert Camus
Existentialism is a big movement of philosophy

especially in western philosophy tradition. Existentialism is
questioning the human existence and the existence is presented
trough freedom. It rejects any kind of determination but the
freedom itself.
The most famous idea of existentialism is from Jean-
Paul Sartre. He stated that human is condemned to be free, so
then one will act because of his or her freedom. For
existentialist, when the freedom is the only one human
universality then the determination of human freedom is other’s
freedom.
The Idea
40

Existentialism
The picture above is the pyramid of human’s need

which was proposed by Abraham Maslow. We starts from
physiological need such as food, health, and biological need.
Then, we go on to the need of safety such as clothing, housing
and feel secured especially froenvironment. The third step is
about relationship. Being loved, having friends or group is
another need. Go to the top of the pyramid we need esteem
such as achievement, prestige, recognation, approval,
competence, and status. Then in the top we will find that we
need self actualization. In the name of self actualization,
existentialism becomes very important. The goal to “be all you
can be”.
Abraham Maslow believed that human being will start
from one level to the next, but only if the needs of the prior
level are met. Thus, self-actualization is difficult if we are
homeless.
There is a big different between humanism and

existentialism. Humanism views that people are capable of
free choice, self-fulfillment, and ethical behavior. While
Existentialism views that people are completely free and
responsible for their own behavior.
But being existentialist does not mean being distinctive

from other people. They realize that the world existence is out
of human control. They will make a choice based on their
preference and they are aware of the responsibility in the
future. The existentialist will not do the thing because of
other’s demand such as parents, husband or wife, and others.
They have their own free will.
The existentialist suggest us to let whatever we analyze,

either thing, feeling, thought, or human existence to ‘come’ to
ourselves. It will happen if the one open their mind to
experience by accepting it even though it is different with our
philosophy, theory or faith.
41

Existentialism
The Content
There are many theories about existentialism. Here are

some famous figures of existentialism.
a. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (5 Mei 1813-11 November 1855)
Kierkegaard was religious and anti-philosophy, but later
on he said he was the one who concerned about philosophy. He
was the one who led Hegelian philosophy to existentialism and
the number one Hegel critics.
He was born from a pious family. His father wanted him
to be a priest and he fulfilled it by studying in seminary school.
He was a good student academically. His scores were very
remarkable. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, he more he
studied the more he found that he was interested to philosophy
and literature. In his future, his thought and literature,
influences many people.
His relationship with his father led him to experience of
fear values. From this value he proposed existentialism.
b. Jean-Paul Sartre ( 21 Juni 1905 – 15 April 1980 )

He was believed as the one who developed
existentialism. The fundamental premise, that “existence
precedes essence,” (L'existence précède l'essence) is a
rejection of the Platonic idea that somewhere, in a perfect
existence, there is the ideal human that we should all aspire to
become. Existentialism claims that we as human beings have
no model, blueprint, no ideal essence, or perfect nature for
humans. Rather, we must forget our own values and meaning
from existing in an inherently meaningless or absurd world.
Existentialism, which sets it off strikingly from Naturalism is
the belief that humans do have free will (L'homme est
condamné à être libre). In our existence, we are constantly
faced with choices, choices from which we cannot escape,
since even choosing not to choose or act is a choice.
Sartre said, “man is nothing else but what he makes of
himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.” We
discover what it means to be human only by existing. Reason is
42

Existentialism
impotent to deal with all aspects of life--our human minds

cannot grasp all there is to reality; in fact, our minds, our
intentionality, impose form upon the objective, material world,
distorting reason and reality. The suspicion of rationality was
expressed by Pascal: “The heart has its reasons which reason
cannot know.”
pic 13. Jean-Paul Sartre
c. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ( 15 Oktober 1844 – 25 Agustus

1900)
He was a son of Lutheran priest Carl Ludwig Nietzsche.
Nietzsche’s philosophy viewed that truth is perspective. He
also was known as The God Killer. He believed that human has
a will to power and to be powerful God must be dead. He
provoked and criticized western culture and civilization that
was influenced by Plato’s critical thinking Christian tradition
(both of them refer to life after death and for Nietzsche it would
led people into pessimism). Even though he said that God has
been died but it did not drive human into nihilism. In vice
versa, it will bring us to defeat nihilism by loving life and
become the real human.
43

Existentialism
pic 14. Friedrich Nietzsche
Nihilism is a terminology on the eternity. It believe that

in life there will be a successive cycles without meaning such
as happiness and sadness, hope, sickness and so on.
As a theory, existentialism has its categories, they are:
• Godly--The godly category acknowledges the existence of

God, but views God as distant and scarcely knowable. As a
result, humans live lonely lives, filled with anxiety about the
choices they must face.
Ungodly-- In the ungodly, or atheistic, category, there is no
evidence of any loving, kind supernatural force in the universe.
• Absurd--For many, the lack of meaning in the universe means
that our futile attempts to give meaning and value to our lives
deserves ridicule. Tragic--Such works admit the absurdity and
irony of human’s search for beauty and meaning in a universe
of blindly swirling atoms, but view life as tragic and man as
deserving better than to suffer and to die.
• Alienation and Estrangement--Humankind, owing partly to
the growing dependence on reason and science, has become
increasingly alienated--from God, from nature, from other
humans, and from our own selves. We live in a spiritual desert,
barren of hope and love.
• “Fear and trembling,” or anxiety--With the loss of reliance
on God and the unsureness of human reason, individuals are
left with agonizing choices and personal responsibility. We are
44

Existentialism
dependent upon our own wills to determine the course of our

lives. That huge responsibility, without sure reason to guide
us, causes us great anxiety. Also, because of advances in
technology, the world has become a place that could be
destroyed at any time.
• The encounter with nothingness--With the loss of God’s
immanence, nature and the universe have been emptied of
meaning , order, purpose, and love. Existentialist writers often
portray a person confronting the abyss, the probable
meaninglessness of the universe and their own actions within
that universe. This existential crisis is often a test of a person
and the courage s/he maintains.
Much of modern literature, philosophy, and art
portrays the world as lonely or meaningless. Existential
protagonists are often lonely, anxiety ridden characters who are
trying to make sense of their lives, or who are trying to retain
their courage in spite of the fact that the universe cares nothing
for those things we call beautiful or good.
Exercise
1. How did existentialism happen?

2. What is existentialism?
3. Mention three figures of existentialism! Explain their theory!
45

Marxism
Chapter 7
MARXISM
Introduction
Marxism is an ideology as well as a theory proposed by

Karl Marx. Marx made this theory based on its relationship of
economic and political system. The followers of this theory
called Marxist. Marxism concerns about dialectical materialism
and historical materialism and its application in the real life.
Even though this theory is not derived from literature

but its influence comes to every sphere of life including in
analyzing literary works. Therefore, in understanding this
theory, the class needs the example of novel influenced by
Marxist, computer and LCD and also white board and board
marker.
Course Plan
Base Competence
By having this theory, the students are able to apply the
theory in analyzing literary works influenced by Marxist.
Indicator
a. Define Marxist theory
b. Differ the theory related to economic and political system and
literature
c. Use the theory in analyzing literary works
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The history of Marxism
2. The Idea of Marxism
3. The Content of Marxism
46

Marxism
The Activity
1. Show the title of the topic through power point
2. Brainstorming
3. Make relationship by giving some case study
Whilst (70 minutes)

1. Ask students to consider some literary works contains of
economic and political issue
2. Divide students into some groups
3. Ask them to present their understanding about the theory
4. Have discussion
1. Motivate students to find conclusion
2. Feedback
Make a response paper of Marxism related to the
history and literature!
MARXISM
The History
Marxism is a basic theory of modern communism. This

theory is stated in the book Communist Manifesto, which was
written by Karl Marx and Frederick Hegel. Marxism is the way
Karl Marx protested to capitalism. He thought that the capitalist
just collect the money by scarifying proletariat. The proletariats
do not earn good money since the capitalist just used their
works to get benefit. Marx argued that this problem happened
because of individual property and the wealth possessed by the
rich. To be prosperous, Marx said that the capitalist system had
to be changed into communism. If this condition happened
47

Marxism
without the effort to change, the poor would go on strike to get

justice. This is the root of Marxism.
One of the reasons why Marxism becomes the rich
thought is because Marxism able to combine of three
intellectual tradition, they are German philosophy, French
political theory and English economy. This theory is not only
just a philosophy but also an ideology.
Pic 15. Karl Marx
The Idea
In proposing the theory, Karl Marx was influenced by

Frederick Hegel. Hegel was his teacher when he was studying
in university. Marxism used Hegel terminology. This is Hegel
terminology that becomes very important in Marxism.
Hegel terminology:
1. Reality is not a certain condition but continuous historical
process
2. Since reality is a continuous historical process, the key to
understand reality is understand the historical change
3. Historical change is not random but follow a certain law
4. The law of change is dialectics, they are thesis, anti-thesis and
synthesis
5. The one that makes this law works is alienation, the process
which continually brings it into some contradiction in itself.
48

Marxism
6. The process is out of human control. It runs because of its own

law, and human gets the flow of its process.
7. The process will continue until all internal contradiction
finished.
8. When the situation is reached without conflict, human will not
get into the flow of outer control, but they will control
themselves.
9. In this phase, human will get their freedom and self-
actualization
10. This condition will happen in organic society in which each
individual works together to fulfill their need as a whole
Pic 16. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
From those 10 terminologies, Hegel had influenced

Karl Marx’s theory.
The Content
For Karl Marx, and those closest to his way of

thinking, all those modes of thought, including literary
creativity, are ideological and are products of social and
economic existence. Basically Man’s social being determines
49

Marxism
his consciousness and the material interests of the dominant

social class determine how all classes perceive their existence.
All forms of culture, therefore, do not exist in an ideal, abstract
form but are inseparable from the historical determining social
conditions. They exist, in other words, as a superstructure to
the basic economic structure of a society. This view was the
exact reverse of the Hegelian belief that the world was
governed by thought and the application of reason, whether it
be human or divine. Philosophizing about the world alone was
insufficient for Marx; the most important thing was to change
it.
In The German Ideology (1846), Marx and Friedrich
Engels wrote of religion, morality and philosophy as ‘phantoms
found in the brains of men’. Karl Marx and Hegel recognized
that art, philosophy and other forms of human consciousness
could alter the human condition and had a degree of autonomy.
Greek tragedy was for him an anomaly because it seemed to
represent a timeless, universal achievement but was actually
produced within a society with a structure and ideology which
he could no longer consider valid.
These are some figures of Marxist:

a. Georg Lukacs (1885-1971)
One of the most admired Marxist critics is Georg Lukács, a
Hungarian-born philosopher and critic. He is associated with
socialist realism but reveals great subtlety in his arguments.
In Lukács’ eyes, true Realism did not just depict the
appearance of the social world but provided ‘a truer, more
complete, more vivid and more dynamic reflection of reality’.
A Realist novel does not provide an illusion of reality but is ‘a
special form of reflecting reality’. A truly realistic work
provides a sense of the ‘artistic necessity’ of the scenes and
details presented.The writer reflects, in an intensified form, the
structure of the society depicted and its dialectical
development.
For Lukács, modernist writers were too concerned about
evoking an inner stream of consciousness and the obsessions of
50

Marxism
isolated individuals. This he related to the effects of living in

late capitalist societies.
b. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Bertolt Brecht, the German-born playwright, focused his
earlier anarchistic attitudes into more clearly defined
communist convictions. He wrote many clearly didactic plays
(the Lehrstücke) and more complex thought-provoking plays,
mainly in exile from Nazi Germany. His theoretical works on
theatre practice revolutionised modern drama. He rejected
entirely the Aristotelian tradition of theatre: plot, fate and
universality were out. He employed techniques to bring about
what he called a Verfremdungseffekt, meaning literally ‘the
effect of making strange’ and usually translated as ‘alienation’.
It has much in common with the concept of ‘defamiliarisation’
coined by the Russian Formalists.
By such methods he attempted to show up the
contradictions in capitalist society as something strange and
unnatural, requiring change. His actors were not to create the
illusion of real people with whom audiences could identify but
should present caricatures revealing the inner contradictions of
the characters, the ways in which their behaviour was moulded
by social forces and their need to survive.
c. Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
The leading and most influential writer on aesthetics in the
Frankfurt School was undoubtedly Adorno. He criticized
Lukács’ view that art could have a direct relationship with
reality. For Adorno, art, including literature, is detached from
reality and this is the very source of its strength.
d. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)
Benjamin argues that works of art once used to have the
quality of uniqueness which he calls their ‘aura’. Even in the
case of literature which, of course, had long been available in
multiple copies, this aura had been maintained.
e. Lucien Goldmann (1913-1970)
Lucien Goldmann was a Romanian by birth but lived in
France. He rejected the notion of individual genius in the arts.
He believed that works of art and literature reflected the
51

Marxism
‘mental structures’ of the class which engendered them. Great

writers possessed the ability to formulate and express these
structures and enable people to perceive them through the
works. He developed a distinctive form of Marxist literary
theory he called ‘genetic structuralism’ which, as the name
suggests, also owes much to structuralist thought. He was
interested in tracing the relationships between a work of
literature, predominant modes of philosophical thought and
ideology and specific social classes.
Goldmann also provided a ‘homological’ study of the
modern novel compared with the structure of market economy.
f. Louis Althusser (1918-1990)
Louis Althusser’s ideas are also clearly indebted to
structuralism. He abhorred the notion of order and systems with
central controlling principles. Social structures consist of
various levels in complex interaction with each other and often
in mutual conflict. One level may dominate the rest at any time
but this is itself determined by economic factors. In A Letter on
Art, Althusser considers art to be located somewhere between
ideology and scientific knowledge.
Althusser presents in his writing two these concerning
ideology. The first is that, ‘Ideology represents the imaginary
relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence’.
The second thesis relates ideology to its social origins. For
Althusser ideology works through the so-called ‘ideological
state apparatuses’. These include the political system, the law,
education, organized religion etc. Ideology has a material
existence in the sense that it is embodied in material systems.
Thus, everything we do and everything we involve ourselves in
is, in some way, ideological. When we believe that we are
acting according to free will it is really in accordance with the
dominant ideology. In accordance with his belief that social
structures are not systems with central controlling principles,
he also asserted that ideology in capitalist societies was not
dominated by the self-interest of a small group who use it to
exploit others. Those who profit from the system are as blind to
its effects as others. One of the causes of this blindness is the
52

Marxism
very force of ideology itself. It convinces us that we are real

‘concrete subjects’. We see as natural whatever ideology wants
us to see as part of the natural order of things.
g. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci did not contribute
specifically to literary theory but his ideas have influenced
many Marxist literary critics.
Pic 17. Antonio Gramsci
Gramsci was fully aware of the power of ideology and of

‘the consent given by the great masses of the population to the
general direction imposed on social life by the dominant
fundamental group’. For Gramsci, it was possible for the
individual to resist what he called the ‘hegemony’: the
domination by a ruling ideology through ‘consent’ rather than
‘coercive power’. Under ‘hegemony’ the citizens of a state
have internalized what the rulers want them to believe so
thoroughly that they genuinely believe that they are expressing
their own opinions. But this hegemony does not, as Althusser
believed, blind all members of the society to the truth of the
53

Marxism
situation. It is possible to become aware of the dominance of

‘hegemony’ and resist its effects, even if it is impossible to
escape completely its influence. This is the loophole of which
the artist can take advantage.
h. Pierre Macherey
Macherey considered a text not as something ‘created’ but
as ‘produced’. He regarded literary texts as being pervaded by
ideology and it was the job of the critic to look for the cracks
and weaknesses in the surface of the work, caused by its own
internal contradictions.
Macherey considered his approach to be scientific and
leading to objectively true interpretations, poststructuralists
believed that there was no such thing as objective truth.
i. Raymond Williams
In Culture and Society 1780–1950 (1958), Williams
defined culture as ‘a whole way of life’. He was very much
aware that in any given society there is more than one single
culture, each with its own ‘ideas of the nature of social
relationship’.
While granting the ‘vital importance’ of literature, he was
instrumental in establishing a broader base for cultural studies:
‘For experience that is formally recorded we go, not only to the
rich source of literature, but also to history, building, painting,
music, philosophy, theology and social theory, the physical
theory, the physical and natural sciences, anthropology, and
indeed the whole body of learning.’
j. Terry Eagleton (1943-)
Eagleton was interested not in what made a text coherent
but what made it incoherent. The influence of Althusser is also
evident. There may be apparent freedom in a text but it is not
free in its reflection of the dominant ideology. In this work
Eagleton analyzed a number of canonical British novels,
exploring the relationships between literary form and ideology.
He came to believe that deconstructive theories could be
used to undermine all absolute forms of knowledge, although
he also rejected the deconstructive denial of the possibility of
objectivity. He now believed that it should be the role of the
54

Marxism
critic to analyze critically accepted notions of what constituted

literature and reveal the ideologies behind them. He thought
that the critic should interpret non-socialist works ‘against the
grain’ to reveal a socialist perspective.
Exersice
1. What is Marxism?
2. How does Marxism turn into ideology?
3. How does Marxism apply in literature?
55

Psychoanalysis
Chapter 8:
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Introduction
Psychoanalysis is a branch of knowledge proposed by
Sigmund Freud and his followers as a functional study and
behavior of human being. In the beginning the term of
psychoanalysis was only used by Freud. Yet, there were many
of his followers deviate and had their own theory later on.
Psychoanalysis, much or less, has big relationship to
psychology. To understand this theory, students must
understand the basic of psychology and compare it in literary
works.
The class needs a computer and LCD to watch a movie
related with psychology, white board, and board marker as well
as novel.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to apply psychoanalysis as one of the
theory in analyzing literature.
Indicator
1. Differ psychoanalysis and psychology
2. Define human basic psychology
3. Apply the theory in analyzing literary works
Time
2x 50 minutes
Material
1. The history of psychoanalysis
2. The idea of psychoanalysis
3. The content of psychoanalysis
56

Psychoanalysis
The Activity
1. Brainstorming
3. Make connection
Whilst (80 minutes)
1. Explain to the student about the theory
2. Divide the students into some group and do the discussion
3. Find case study of psychoanalysis in literary work
1. Help the students to get the solution
2. Feedback
Find the steps of human psychoanalysis in literary
work assigned!
PSYCHOANALYSIS
The History
Psychoanalysis was introduced for the first time by

Sigmund Freud in his book The Corner Stones of
Psychoanalytic Theory. Sigmund Freud was a doctor in insane
hospital and thought to cure those people by using this theory.
In his book, Freud state that ‘The assumption that
there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the
theory of resistance and repression, the appreciation of the
importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex – these
constitute the principal subject-matter of psychoanalysis and
the foundations of its theory. No one who cannot accept them
should count himself a psychoanalyst.’
Certain concepts and views on mental processes must
be held in common for the term psychoanalysis to be justified,
Sigmund Freud was quite clear about it. It is also said at the
57

Psychoanalysis
outset that much that passes for psychoanalysis of literature

often uses the concepts, terminology and methodology very
loosely.
Pic 18. Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis was very much the product of one

man’s Mind. Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis in the
first instance as a means of helping mentally disturbed patients.
While studying under Charcot in Paris, he had become
convinced of the existence of an extensive unconscious area of
the mind which can, and does, wield strong influence over our
conscious mind. Through close study of mentally disturbed
patients and their symptoms he discovered that knowledge of
the unconscious was accessible through analysis of dreams,
symptomatic nervous behaviour and parapraxes (the famous
Freudian slips).
The conscious mind cannot cope with some of the
unsavoury truths buried in the unconscious and, when they
threaten to surface, represses them, attempting in practice to
deny their reality. The tensions caused between the need of
such truths to surface and the determination of the self to
repress them can lead to serious mental disturbance, what
Freud called neurosis, involving compulsive behaviour and
obsessive modes of thinking. Cure was effected by helping the
patient to understand what had brought about the behavioural
disturbance and by tracing it to its roots in the unconscious.
The most common, but not the only, needs repressed proved to
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Psychoanalysis
be sexual in nature. Freud also developed a theory of the

development of infantile sexuality and extended the areas of
psychoanalytic interest to include broader cultural and social
phenomena, including primitive beliefs, superstition, religion,
the nature of civilization etc.
The Idea
Psychoanalysis has three applications:

1. Research method of thought
2. A systematical knowledge if human behavior
3. A behavioral method toward psychological and emotional
illness
In wide application of psychoanalysis, it requires at
least 20 theoretical orientations that is based a theory of human
mental activity understanding and its development. Freudian
theory is the basic of other modern therapy and becomes big
movement in psychology.
Freudian psychoanalysis refers to treatment in which a
man is analyzed to convey his thought verbally, including free
association, fantasy and dream that becomes the sources for
researcher to formulate the unconscious conflict which drive to
character’s problem and then the patient will realize himself
and find the solution.
Freud clearly regarded the artist as a unique individual
who avoids neurosis and sheer wishful thinking through the
practice of his or her art. The artist or writer is involved in a
process of sublimation (refining basic drives, such as those of
sex and aggression, and converting them into creative and
intellectual activity).
The Content
Sigmund Freud believed that in human psyche, there are

tripartite structures which influence human life. They are id,
ego and super ego. Id is unconscious desire, has surged up and
flooded the conscious mind with its illogicality, riddling
59

Psychoanalysis
associations and affective rather than conceptual links between

ideas. Ego is an inividual identity. The ego develops with
experience, and accounts for developmental differences in
behavior. While super ego consists of two parts, the conscience
and the ego-ideal.The conscience is the familiar metaphor of
angel and devil on each shoulder. The conscience decides what
course of action one should take. The ego-ideal is an idealized
view of one's self.
The tripartite structure above was thought to be dynamic,
changing with age and experience. The work of
psychoanalysis can perhaps best be summarized in one of
Freud's own slogans: 'Where id was, there shall ego be’.
Freudian followers developed his theory in many

aspects. These are some of them as psychoanalysis figures:
a. Jacques Lacan (1901-1981)

Jacques Lacan has greatly influenced recent
psychoanalytic theory in general as well as literary theory in
particular. He broadened and redefined several basic
psychoanalytic concepts in ways with which many orthodox
Freudians disagree. According to Freud, in the earliest phase of
childhood, the individual is dominated by the ‘ pleasure
principle’ , seeking unreflecting gratification, with no definitely
established identity and gender.
Pic 19. Jacques Marie Émile Lacan
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Psychoanalysis
Lacan describes the earlier state of being, when the child

is unaware of any distinctions between subject and object, as
the ‘ imaginary’ . Then comes the ‘ mirror phase’ , when the child
starts to become aware of itself as an individual (as though
seeing an image of itself in a mirror) and identifies this self. It
produces something identifiable as an ego. When it becomes
aware of the father’ s restrictions, it enters the ‘ symbolic’ world
and also becomes aware of binary oppositions: male/female,
present/absent etc. Behind all this, the restricted desire persists.
The whole of Freud’ s dream theory is also reinterpreted
by Lacan as a textual theory, using Jakobson’ s concepts of
‘ metaphor’ and ‘ metonymy’ to explain the various structuring
principles defined by Freud, such as ‘ displacement’
(transferring emphasis from one element in a dream to
another), ‘ condensation’ (combining several ideas and images)
and so on.
For Lacan, the whole of human life is like a narrative in
which significance constantly eludes us. Consciousness starts
out with a sense of loss (of the mother’ s body), and we are
constantly driven by a desire to find substitutes for this lost
paradise. All narrative can, in fact, be understood in terms of a
search for a lost completion.
b. Harold Bloom (1930-)

Harold Bloom applied psychoanalysis to the actual
history of literature, interpreting developments and changes in
styles and norms, in poetry in particular, as the result of a
conflict between generations, akin to that envisioned in the
Freudian Oedipus complex. As sons feel oppressed by their
fathers, so do poets feel themselves to be in the shadow of
influential poets who came before them. He also explicitly
attacks deconstructive criticism, which he regards as ‘ serene
linguistic nihilism’ , and endeavours to reaffirm the notion of
author’ s intention.
For Bloom, criticism is itself a form of poetry and poems
incorporate literary criticism of other poems. It is one poetic
and critical continuum.
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Psychoanalysis
c. Julia Kristiva (1941-)

Julia Kristeva combines Lacanian psychoanalysis with
politics and feminism. Kristeva redefines and renames Lacan’ s
concept of the ‘ imaginary’ from a feminist perspective. In the
Lacanian scheme, when the child enters the ‘ symbolic’ phase
and starts naming things and heeding principles of order and
law, its whole existence takes as its centre the ‘ transcendental
signifier’ , the phallus, the father as embodiment of law.
Pic 20. Julia Kristeva
Kristeva wishes to destroy the omnipotence of this male

order. She posits a form of language as existing already in
Lacan’ s ‘ imaginary’ pre-Oedipal stage, which she calls instead
the ‘ semiotic’ stage.The ‘ semiotic’ is a vague almost mystical
concept. The underlying ‘ semiotic’ flow is artificially broken
up into units when the ‘ symbolic’ order is imposed on it, but it
persists as a kind of force within language. It is clearly
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Psychoanalysis
associated with an essential femininity but it also occurs in a

period of development when no distinctions of gender have yet
taken place.
d. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)

Strictly speaking C G Jung is not a psychoanalyst but
what he himself preferred to call an analytical psychologist. He
is included here, however, for three important reasons: his
theories have been very influential in the interpretation of
literature; they have a lot more in common with Freud’ s
theories than either of them would have been willing to admit;
and they do not really fit into any other broad category utilized
in this book.
Pic 21. Carl Gustav Jung
Jung also believed in the existence of a collective

unconscious, which is common to the whole human race and
contains universal archetypes.
63

Psychoanalysis
Jungian psychology is what he called ‘ individuation’ , a

process by which the individual is helped to harmonize his/her
‘ persona’ (the self as presented to the world) and ‘ the shadow’
(the darker potentially dangerous side of the personality that
exists in the personal unconscious).
Jungian psychology has contributed little to the study of
literature as text, but much to the interpretation of symbols and
images in texts. The Jungian theory of archetypes has been
influential on the French philosopher of science and literary
theory Gaston Bachelard.
Exercise:
1. What is psychoanalysis?
2. How did Sigmund Freud use psychoanalysis?
3. Mention the tripartite in human psyche!
4. How do you apply psychoanalysis in analyzing literary
work?
64

Feminism
Chapter 9
FEMINISM
Introduction
Feminism is a theory of literature which was
influenced by feminism movement. This theory was born in
America and affected a lot of literary works.
In this course, students are encouraged to understand
this theory by knowing the history, the impact to human life
either for man or woman and the way this theory develops time
by time.
In this course, students will need the example of the
analyses, LCD, computer, board maker and white board.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to apply the theory in analyzing
literary work
Indicator
1. explain the history, the idea and the content of the theory
2. describe the usage of the theory in analyzing literary work
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. the History of Feminism
2. the Idea of Feminism
3. the Content of Feminism
The Activity
Introductory
1. The lecturer writes the topic of the lesson in the white board
2. Energizer
3. Lecturer reveal the objective of the lesson
Whilst
1. Do brainstorming
2. Choose the presenter of the topic
65

Feminism
3. Have discussion; lecturer as the motivator

Closing
1. Lecturer helps the students to make the conclusion
2. Feed back
Find literary works related to feminism. Explain the

influence of feminism in the works based on the wave of
feminism!
FEMINISM
The History
Feminism derives from Latin femina means woman.

This term was used in 1890s, referred to the equality between
man and woman. Feminism was born as a struggle for equality
and liberation for women. It is a critique of patriarchy in a
sense of oppression in a man made world. Actually, since ages,
people thought about what kind of creature a woman is.
Aristotle said that ‘the female is female by virtue of a certain
lack of qualities’ and St Thomas Aquinas said that woman is an
‘imperfect man’. While John Donne said that woman is
masculine in form and feminine in matter. All those sayings are
really hurt for women’s existence.
Undeniable that feminism rooted from existentialism in

the way women acquire their right and existence. Simone de
Bouvoir is one of the feminist figure since she got support from
her spouse, Jean Paul Sartre.
Patriarchal in society and law enforcement are the

cause of the unfairness, domination and subordination toward
woman so then the consequence of it is the demand of gender
equality. Feminism emphasizes the attention and analysis of
law role toward patriarchal hegemony. Any kinds of analysis
66

Feminism
and theories of feminism are maintained to show how human

survive their lives. Feminist movement is a description that
abstract regulation cannot overcome inequality.
Pic 22. Ernest Hemingway, some people believed his

works are feminist
The Idea
Being oppressed since they were born made women

realized that they were not only become the second citizen in
society but also in politics. They did not have any right in
politics. They could not vote, only men could make it. Then,
politics directed at changing existing relations between men
and women in society. From politics, they could manage
radical change in culture and society as well as education.
It may be funny, but the idea of feminism comes from

the view that this movement theorize the act of knowing
differently from men, that men can never understand feminism.
The feminist feel that men characterizes world with it
experiences as patriarchal and the culture as masculinist. Then,
the movement fight for freeing of human possibilities by
67

Feminism
struggling against culturally imposed stereotypes, lifestyles,

roles, and reponsibility.
The Content
Historically the movement of feminism are devided into

three waves, in which each wave has it own spirit of the era:
 First wave
It happened in America and British in the late of 19th

century and the early of 20th centure. In this wave, the
movement stressed on The Women’s Rights and Women’s
Suffrage movements. They were very crucial determinants in
shaping this phase, with their emphasis on social, political and
economic reform. The figures are Virginia Woolf and Simone
de Beauvoir. Virginia Woolf consider women’s situation as
writer then exploded the dominance of the major professions
by men. She was a journalist; a job which was dominated by
men. Therefore she made a list of job preference between man
and woman. She also stated that if women were to develop
their artistic abilities to the full, she felt it was necessary to
establish social and economic equality with men.
Pic 23. Virginia Woolf
68

Feminism
The second figure, Simone de Beauvoir, distinguished sex

and gender. Sex is related to the different between male and
female biologically while gender is activity which is attached
to the sex. For instance, cooking is female matter. Therefore
she demanded freedom for women from being distinguised on
the basis of biology and rejected the whole notion of
femininity.
Pic 24. Simone de Beauvoir
 Second wave
It happened in 1960s. It was striggered by the frustrations
of white, heterosexual, and middle-class American women who
were careerless and trapped in domesticity. This movement
put feminism on the national agenda, substantively and for the
first time. In this wave the movement found its radicality. The
women demanded the same right, posistion as well as the
occupation with man.
In this radical wave, there are some various liberty
demanded by women including the idea of homosexual. In
1966, Betty Friedan established National Organization for
Woman (NOW). Her struggle succeeded then the government
gave Equal Pay Right so then women had equal payment like
men and also Equal Right Act so then women had right to vote.
This movement showed that modern society system was
unfair to the women existence in which they were marginalized
in any aspects.
69

Feminism
 Third wave
It happened in 1990s. It is called as Post feminism in which

women realize to the difference between male and female.
Women comprehend that both men and women need to
actualize themselves without treating ‘the opponent’ as the
rivals. Each of them need each other and the can help one an
other. Women refuse the idea to ignore or reject men in their
life. They are partner who have different portion and different
way in actualizing their esistence.
From this reality there is no ‘radical equality’ anymore.

Women only demand the nature they have, they are having
monthly period, delivering babies and giving breast feeding.
Despite those, men and women are equal. They could do the
thing together in good cooperation.
Pic 25. Emily Bronte, a feminist writer
70

Feminism
Besides the waves of movement, feminism also has its

strands of thought, they are:
a. Liberal Feminism
It began in the 19th century when women released suffrage
movement. It required “Gender justice”. It was triggered by
the oppression of women as the same paradigm as any
oppression. It argued that women and men should be given the
same educational opportunities and civil rights (the “rules” of
the game should be fair).
This view places women as the one who have freedom
individually and fully. This movement also states that freedom
and equality rooted from the rationality and separation between
public and private sphere. Every human has capacity to think
and act rationally as well as women.
Liberal Feminism also views about state as the power that does
not tend to one different group especially which is very
pluralist. This movement realizes that state is dominated by
men, which reflected and masculine tendency.
b. Marxist Feminism
Marxist feminism is a revolutionary because capitalism
oppresses women. It tends to identify classism rather than
sexism as the ultimate cause of oppression. It focuses on work-
related concerns (e.g. Trivialization of women’s domestic
work; low paid women’s work). The figures of Marxism such
as Karl Marx and Hegel influenced much on this movement.
This movement emphasizes on how the production happens.
Women do the production for themselves but later on it
changes into exchange. Men control the production to
exchange and as the consequence they dominate social
relationship while women are reduced as part of property.
Production system which oriented to benefit makes the form of
class in society-bourgeois and proletar. If capitalism drawn so
then the structure of society can be mended and the oppression
to women can be omitted.
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Feminism
c. Socialist Feminism
This movement bore as the effect of Marxism Feminism. The
fundamental cause of women’s oppression is not classism or
sexism, but an interplay between capitalism and patriarchy.
Socialist feminism uses class and gender analysis to understand
women oppression. They believe in Marxist feminism that
capitalism is the source of women suffrage but it also
comprehend with radical feminism that the suffrage because of
patriarchal system. So, in short, it wants to say that capitalism
and patriarchy are the powers that support each other.
Therefore, this movement tends to abolish patriarchy and
capitalism.
d. Radical Feminism
This movement bore as the awareness of patriarchal system.
This system is characterized by power, dominance, hierarchy,
and competition between men and women.Change of legal
structures is not enough because women think that social and
cultural institutions must also be addressed such as family,
church, and academy. Separatism means promotion of “women
culture”. The figures of this movement are Alison Jaggar, Paula
Rothenberg, Kate Millet, Shulamith Firestone, Mary Daly.
This trend occurred in the middle of 1970s in which this
movement offered ideology of women struggle on separatism.
In the history, this view was the reaction against sexism culture
or social domination based on sexist in Western in 1960s,
especially against sexual harassment and pornography industry.
The movement emphasizes to the opinion that women suffrage
happened because patriarchal system. Women’s bodies are the
main object to be harassed by men. Therefore, radical feminism
questions the women’s right on reproduction, sexuality
(including lesbianism), sexism, relationship between men and
women power, and private-public dichotomy.
e. Psychoanalitic Feminism
Being oppressed since they were born make the psyche of
women common with the treatment. The female psyche
produced a thought that being oppressed is thier fate.
Therefore, this movement argues that we work towards a more
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Feminism
androgynous society in which the full human person is blend of

positive feminine and positive masculine traits.There are as
‘many human selves as there are individual people”, that what
Tong said. The figure of this movement is Nancy Chodorow.
f. Post Modern Feminism
This movement invites women to become the kind of “feminist
they want to be”; because this movement believes that there is
“no single formula” of feminism. It views feminist thought
with suspicion because language can be deconstructed to
investigate what gets excluded in the text. The figures are
Cixous, Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva.
g. Multi cultural and Global Feminism
This movement roots of “fragmented self” such as in culture,

race, and ethnicity. It views that women experience oppression
differently (e.g. First and third Worlds). The experience is also
seen from the historical bacground such as black women
oppression (Hooks, Patricia Hill Collins).
Exercise
1. What is feminism?
2. How did feminism happen?
3. Explain the periods (waves) of feminism!
4. What is the different between sex and gender?
5. What is the nature of female?
6. Explain three thought of feminism!
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Post Structuralism
Chapter 10
POST-STRUCTURALISM
Introduction
Post-structuralism is the revision of the structural view
of literature, which explains that language has no objectively
identifiable or absolute meaning, and that therefore texts allow
any number of interpretations. It rejects the idea of a literary
text having a single purpose. Instead, every individual reader
creates a new and individual purpose, meaning, and existence
for a given text. This literary criticism is a product of the
structuralist view, which aims to provide more viewpoints on a
common thing.
In understanding this material, some examples are quite
needed. Besides that, computer and LCD are very useful for the
class as well as the white board and board marker.
Course Plan
Base Competence
Students are able to define post-structuralism as well as
use it a theory in analyzing literary work.
Indicator
1. To comprehend the idea, the idea and the content of
the theory
2. To use the theory in analyzing literary work
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The history of Formalism
2. The Idea of Formalism
3. The Content of Formalism
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Post Structuralism
The Activity
1. Brainstorming
2. Show the title of the topic through slide
Whilst (75 minutes)
1. Lecturing
2. Ask students to find case study or issue in literary work
related to the theory
3. Discussion
1. Help students to find solution
2. Make conclusion
What a movie related to post-structuralism and make the
response paper!
POST STRUCTURALISM
The History
Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American

academics to denote the heterogeneous works of a series of
mid-20th-century French and continental philosophers and
critical theorists who came to international prominence in the
1960s and '70s. A major theme of poststructuralism is
instability in the human sciences, due to the complexity of
humans themselves and the impossibility of fully escaping
structures in order to study them.
Post-structuralism is a response to structuralism.
Structuralism is an intellectual movement developed in Europe
from the early to mid-20th century. It argued that human
culture may be understood by means of a structure—modeled
on language that differs from concrete reality and from abstract
ideas. Post-structuralist authors all present different critiques of
structuralism, but common themes include the rejection of the
self-sufficiency of the structures that structuralism posits and
an interrogation of the binary oppositions that constitute those
structures. Writers whose work is often characterised as post-
structuralist include Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and
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Post Structuralism
Jacques Lacan, although many theorists who have been called

"post-structuralist" have rejected the label.
The movement is closely related to postmodernism.
Some commentators have criticized poststructuralism for being
radically relativistic or nihilistic; others have objected to its
extremity and linguistic complexity. Others see it as a threat to
traditional values or professional scholarly standards.
The Idea
Post structuralism comes after structuralism; it is a

reaction against structuralism. But, in its critique of
structuralism, it was not conducting a postmortem. It was also a
very complex phenomenon, which cannot be explained just by
its relationship to structuralism. It must be stressed that post
structuralism and deconstruction theory are parts of a
continuum and that it is mainly for the sake of clarity that they
have been allotted separate sections.
Saussure, who was the most figure in proposing
structuralism, was about to be dethroned, because a signifier
was no longer perceived as signifying anything anymore. With
every ‘ sign’ , Saussure had posited, ‘ signifier’ and ‘ signified’
were two sides of the same coin. Although they were in an
arbitrary relationship, they stuck together through thick and
thin.
Then post structuralism came along and threw doubt on
this whole cozy little arrangement. For them a ‘ sign’ is a very
temporary coming together of ‘ signifier’ and ‘ signified’ : a one-
night stand. For poststructuralists, signifiers form complex
patterns of meaning with other signifiers and their meanings
can never be pinned down.
Saussure’ s concepts of ‘ parole’ (language as utterance)
and ‘ langue’ (language competence) were also under attack by
the poststructuralists. Structuralists were interested primarily in
‘ langue’ , the deep structure which makes communication and
meaning possible. But poststructuralists saw ‘ langue’ as a kind
of myth. Language does not have an impersonal structure
underlying utterances. It is always and only an articulated
system, which interacts with other systems of meaning and
with human social existence. This concept of language
poststructuralists prefer to call ‘ discourse’ .
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Post Structuralism
According to poststructuralists everything is discourse.

Objective reporting of things and events in language is simply
impossible. All language, meaning everything we can
potentially say, pre-exists our utilization of it. Subject and
object cannot be sharply distinguished. This not only applies to
our use of language but to all systems of knowledge, including
science. New knowledge is attained when there is a jump from
one accepted form of discourse to a completely new one, a
paradigm-shift.
In the post-structuralist approach to textual analysis, the
reader replaces the author as the primary subject of inquiry.
This displacement is often referred to as the "destabilizing" or
"decentering" of the author, though it has its greatest effect on
the text itself. Without a central fixation on the author, post-
structuralists examine other sources for meaning (e.g., readers,
cultural norms, other literature, etc.). These alternative sources
are never authoritative, and promise no consistency.
The Content
Post-structuralism is hard to define or summarize

because it rejects definitions that claim to have discovered
absolute truth of facts about the world. This literary criticism
goes beyond the usual explanation of terms. An example of this
is the word mutton, which describes the meat of the sheep. It is
not proper to call the meat sheep, for saying that connotes the
animal. Basically, this form strays from structuralist views
which have their own biases.
In Post-structuralism, the two main aspects are the
signifiers and the signified. According to Structuralism, the
signifier (physical) and signified (mental) must be aligned, but
without any extra-lingual meaning. This limited the creativity
and extended criticism of people, for Structuralism sort of
advocates the above standard about the two aspects. This
standard (which is stated in Saussure’s Theory of Language) is
opposed by Post-structuralism.
Post-structuralism have many effects in our world today.
It changes everyone's perspective about things and on how they
are being understood. And in our literature today, we can't have
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Post Structuralism
just one literary text, rather, we must have a variety of

interpretations of the text to be understood by the readers. Its
effects have widely changed the field of Literature, where
several interpretations and meanings of words and passages
created new analyses, theories and paths towards understanding
of the text.
These are the general practice of post structuralism:
a. The author's intended meaning is secondary to the
meaning that the reader perceives. Also the author's
identity as a stable "self" with a single, discernible
"intent" is a fictional construct. Post-structuralism
rejects the idea of a literary text having a single
purpose, a single meaning, or one singular existence.
Instead, every individual reader creates a new and
individual purpose, meaning, and existence for a
given text. To step outside of literary theory, this
position is generalizable to any situation where a
subject perceives a sign. Meaning (or the signified,
in Saussure's scheme, which is as heavily presumed
upon in post-structuralism as in structuralism) is
constructed by an individual from a signifier. This is
why the signified is said to 'slide' under the signifier,
and explains the talk about the "primacy of the
signifier."
b. A post-structuralist critic must be able to use a
variety of perspectives to create a multifaceted
interpretation of a text, even if these interpretations
conflict with one another. It is particularly important
to analyze how the meanings of a text shift in
relation to certain variables, usually involving the
identity of the reader (for example: class, racial, or
sexual identity)
Since this theory is also talking about the text, then some
figures who involved in this theory also concerned about it.
They are:
a. Roland Barthes
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Post Structuralism
He despises the writer who deludes him/herself

and his or her readers into thinking that language can be
a transparent medium, through which it is possible to
transmit clear unambiguous ideas or images of reality.
Something which characterizes much poststructuralist
thought is the occurrence of infinite regress or doubt.
In The Death of the Author (1968), Barthes rejects
the view that an author is the originator of his text and
the sole authority for its valid interpretation. A work in
no way and on no level reflects an author’s intentions
concerning the work. The author is nothing more than
the location where a verbal event takes place. The reader
can therefore approach the text from any direction
whatsoever, and can interpret the text (the ‘signifier’)
without respecting any intended meaning (the ‘signified).
Pic 26. Roland Barthes
Barthes pursues this self-indulgence on the part of

the reader even further. For him, there are two kinds of
pleasure to be gained in reading a text. The first is simple
‘pleasure’. We feel this when we perceive something
more than the simple and obvious meaning of what we
read. The second type of pleasure is what must appear to
be an odd interpretation of the concept for most people.
For many it is difficult to identify it as a kind of pleasure
at all. A text which provides a sense of ‘bliss’ ‘unsettles
the reader’s historical, cultural, psychological
assumptions’. It is the thrill of discovering the new, the
dangerous, that which threatens chaos, anarchy.
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Post Structuralism
For Barthes, there are two types of text: that which

allows the reader only to comprehend in a predetermined
way and that which makes the reader into the producer
of his or her own meaning. The first type of text he calls
‘readerly’ (lisible) and the other ‘writerly’ (scriptible). It
is clear that Barthes prefers the second kind: ‘this ideal
text is a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of
signifieds.’ It is possible for a reader to apply an infinite
number of interpretations to such a text. None of them
needs to be compatible nor part of an overall unity.
Barthes divided a story into a random number of
reading which each of them is subjected to analysis
according to five codes:
1. Hermeneutic (relating to the enigma or mystery in the
story).
2. Semic (relating to associations evoked).
3. Symbolic (relating to polarities and antitheses in the
story).
4. Proairetic (relating to basic action and behaviour).
5. Cultural (relating to commonly shared cultural
knowledge between text and reader).
b. Michael Foucault
Foucault’s use of the term ‘discourse’ is closely
related to his concept of power. The power of the
human sciences (eg. psychology, economics etc.)
derives from their claims to be knowledge. They
expect respect for their claims and thereby exert
power and influence. He asserted that discourse can
be defined as a large group of statements belonging
to a single system of formation, what he calls a
‘discursive formation’.
For Foucault, what it is possible for an author to
say changes from one period to another. What is
considered normal or rational in any given period is
confirmed by rules, tacit or otherwise. Those who do
not abide by the rules are excluded from the
prevailing discourse, and are either suppressed or
condemned as mad. The education system is also
important in institutionalizing these rules and
inculcating them into the minds of new generations.
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Post Structuralism
Foucault points out that different forms of

knowledge have arisen in different historical periods
and been replaced eventually by new systems of
thought. For him, history is such a series of
disconnected discursive practices. The work of
Pic 27. Michael Foucault
Foucault which deals most explicitly with writing

and authorship is the essay What is an Author?
(1969). In this essay, he recognizes the importance
of Barthes’ essay The Death of the Author but views
the question of authorship as being more complex.
However, the idea of an ideal society in which
literature could circulate anonymously appeals to
him greatly. It would seem that, for Foucault, the
aim of writing is not to express the self or to fix a
meaning but to create an individual object behind
which the writer can efface him or herself: ‘Writing
unfolds like a game that invariably goes beyond its
own rules and transgresses its limits. In writing, the
point is not to manifest or exalt the act of writing,
nor is it to pin a subject within language; it is rather a
question of creating a space into which the writing
subject constantly disappears.’
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Post Structuralism
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is unthinkable without post structuralism.
A major theory associated with Structuralism was binary
opposition. This theory proposed that there are certain
theoretical and conceptual opposites, often arranged in a
hierarchy, which human logic has given to text. Such binary
pairs could include Enlightenment/Romantic, male/female,
speech/writing, rational/emotional, signifier/signified,
symbolic/imaginary.
Deconstruction is a literary theory and philosophy of
language derived principally from Jacques Derrida's 1967 work
Of Grammatology. The premise of deconstruction is that all of
Western literature and philosophy implicitly relies on a
metaphysics of presence, where intrinsic meaning is accessible
by virtue of pure presence. Deconstruction denies the
possibility of a pure presence and thus of essential or intrinsic
meaning.
Jacques Derrida is a force with which to be reckoned.

One cannot take lightly a man who called into question the
basic metaphysical assumptions of all western philosophy since
Plato. He argued that even structuralism assumes a centre of
meaning of some kind, as individuals assume the central ‘I’ in
their own consciousness. This centre guarantees a sense of
unity of being. But, for Derrida, recent developments in
western thought have led inevitably to a decentring process.
Traditionally there have always been ‘centring’ processes:
being, self, essence, God etc. This human need Derrida called
‘logocentrism’. This derives from the New Testament use of
the term ‘logos’ (the Greek for ‘word’) to express the Christian
belief that the primary cause of all things was the spoken word
of God: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ In ‘logocentrism’, the
spoken word is thus closer to thought than the written word.
This Derrida refers to as ‘phonocentrism’, which always
presupposes the presence of self. When we hear speech, we
assume a speaking presence.
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Post Structuralism
Derrida then proceeds to do is to upset the ranking order

of speech and writing and ‘deconstruct’ this whole way of
thinking: both speech and writing share ‘writerly’ features, and
both are signifying processes which lack a real sense of
presence (of the speaker or writer). He also develops the notion
of a ‘violent hierarchy’. By creating a hierarchy of speech over
writing we do violence to the truth: when we say that ‘a’ is
prior to ‘b’, in fact ‘b’ is already implied in ‘a’.
Pic 28. Jacques Derrida
A deconstructive reading of a text identifies the

existence of such hierarchies, reverses them and ultimately
demonstrates that neither of the pair of opposites in each case is
superior to the other: they are interdependent.
In Derrida’s approach to literary analysis there is the
assumption that all texts, whether literary or not, can be
deconstructed. This involves, in effect, dismantling texts, or
parts of them, to reveal inner inconsistencies: where a text
might appear to imply one thing, it can, in fact, be shown to
imply its opposite. Texts create only a semblance of stable
meaning.
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Post Structuralism
Derrida’s actual technique is to focus on points in a text

where contradictions are evident (symptomatic points) and
pursue the implications of these points, eventually undermining
(deconstructing) the whole edifice.
Exercise
1. What is Post structuralism?
2. How did this theory happen?
3. What did Barthes mean by The Death of the Author?
4. How is Foucault’s idea of discourse?
5. What is relationship between Post Structuralism and
Deconstruction?
6. How did Derrida define about violent hierarchy?
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Post Modernism
Chapter 11
POST-MODERNISM
Introduction
Postmodernism is a term that describes the
postmodernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural
tendencies and associated cultural movements. It is in general
the era that follows Modernism.[1] It frequently serves as an
ambiguous overarching term for skeptical interpretations of
culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture,
fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with
deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a
term gained significant popularity at the same time as
twentieth-century post-structural thought.
Postmodern literature is literature characterized by heavy
reliance on techniques like fragmentation, paradox, and
questionable narrators, and is often (though not exclusively)
defined as a style or trend which emerged in the post–World
War II era. Postmodern works are seen as a reaction against
Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature.
As usual, in handling the class, computer and LCD are
needed as well as the white board and board marker.
Course Plan
Base Competence
By having this topic, students are able to apply this
theory in analyzing literary work.
Indicator
1. Comprehend the history, the idea and the content of
post modernism
2. Understand the relationship between modern and
post modern
3. Apply the theory in analyzing literary work
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Post Modernism
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The history of Post Modernism
2. The Idea of Post Modernism
3. The Content of Post Modernism
The Activity
1. Lecturer show case study to students
2. Ask the student about the phenomena
Whilst (75 minutes)
1. Students define the meaning of post modernism
2. Discussion
3. Lecturer help them to find the idea of the theory and how
to apply it
1. Make conclusion
2. Feedback
Make a concept map of Post Modernism!
POST MODERNISM
The History
The term "Postmodern" was first used around the 1870s.

John Watkins Chapman suggested "a Postmodern style of
painting" as a way to move beyond French Impressionism. J.
M. Thompson, in his 1914 article in The Hibbert Journal (a
quarterly philosophical review), used it to describe changes in
attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion: "The raison
d'etre of Post-Modernism is to escape from the double-
mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by
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Post Modernism
extending it to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling

as well as to Catholic tradition."
In 1917, Rudolf Pannwitz used the term to describe a
philosophically-oriented culture. His idea of post-modernism
drew from Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of modernity and its
end results of decadence and nihilism. Pannwitz's post-human
would be able to overcome these predicaments of the modern
human. Contrary to Nietzsche, Pannwitz also included
nationalist and mythical elements in his use of the term.
In 1921 and 1925, Postmodernism had been used to
describe new forms of art and music. In 1942 H. R. Hays
described it as a new literary form. However, as a general
theory for a historical movement it was first used in 1939 by
Arnold J. Toynbee: "Our own Post-Modern Age has been
inaugurated by the general war of 1914-1918.
Pic 29. Samuel Beckett. His works are believed as the

pioneer of Post Modernism
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Post Modernism
After that, Postmodernism was applied to a whole host

of movements, many in art, music, and literature, that reacted
against tendencies in the imperialist phase of capitalism called
"modernism," and are typically marked by revival of historical
elements and techniques. Walter Truett Anderson identifies
Postmodernism as one of four typological world views. These
four world views are the Postmodern-ironist, which sees truth
as socially constructed; the scientific-rational, in which truth is
found through methodical, disciplined inquiry; the social-
traditional, in which truth is found in the heritage of American
and Western civilization; and the neo-romantic, in which truth
is found through attaining harmony with nature and/or spiritual
exploration of the inner self.
Postmodernist ideas in philosophy and the analysis of
culture and society expanded the importance of critical theory
and has been the point of departure for works of literature,
architecture, and design, as well as being visible in
marketing/business and the interpretation of history, law and
culture, starting in the late 20th century. These developments—
re-evaluation of the entire Western value system (love,
marriage, popular culture, shift from industrial to service
economy) that took place since the 1950s and 1960s, with a
peak in the Social Revolution of 1968—are described with the
term Postmodernity, Influences on postmodern thought, Paul
Lützeler (St. Louis) as opposed to Postmodernism, a term
referring to an opinion or movement. Postmodernism has also
been used interchangeably with the term post-structuralism out
of which postmodernism grew, a proper understanding of
postmodernism or doing justice to the postmodernist thought
demands an understanding of the poststructuralist movement
and the ideas of its advocates. Post-structuralism resulted
similarly to postmodernism by following a time of
structuralism. It is characterized by new ways of thinking
through structuralism, contrary to the original form.
"Postmodernist" describes part of a movement; "Postmodern"
places it in the period of time since the 1950s, making it a part
of contemporary history.
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Post Modernism
The Idea
Literary postmodernism was officially inaugurated in
the United States with the first issue of boundary 2, subtitled
"Journal of Postmodern Literature and Culture", which
appeared in 1972.
Modernism tend to emphasize on impressionism and
subjectivity in writing; emphasize on HOW perception takes
place, rather than on WHAT is perceived. Post modernism does
not work in that way. It is a movement away from the apparent
objectivity provided by omniscient third-person narrators, fixed
narrative points of view, and clear-cut moral positions. There is
a blurring of distinctions between genres, so that poetry seems
more documentary and prose seems more poetic.
Post modernism has an emphasis on fragmented forms,
discontinuous narratives, and random-seeming collages of
different materials. It also has a tendency toward reflexivity, or
self-consciousness, about the production of the work of art, so
that each piece calls attention to its own status as a production,
as something constructed and consumed in particular ways.
Post modernism rejects the distinction between "high"
and "low" or popular culture, both in choice of materials used
to produce art and in methods of displaying, distributing, and
consuming art.
The Content
The most problematic aspects of postmodernism is the

term ‘postmodernism’ itself. It is difficult to find agreement
among critics on its range of meanings and implications. Some
critics understand postmodernism to be essentially a later
development of modernist ideas, but others regard it as
radically different.
Postmodern literary texts frequently reveal an absence of
closure and analyses of them focus on that absence. Both texts
and critiques are concerned with the uncertainty of identity and
what is known as ‘intertextuality’: the reworking of earlier
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Post Modernism
works or the interdependence of literary texts (will be

explained later on).
Postmodernism has attracted both strong positive and
negative criticism. It can be seen as a positive, liberating force,
destabilizing preconceived notions of language and its relation
to the world and undermining all metalanguages about history
and society. But it is also seen as undermining its own
presuppositions and warding off all coherent interpretation. For
many it is apolitical and ironically non-committal.
There are two figures of this movement, they are:
a. Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard is renowned for his critique of modern
technology and media. He refuses to distinguish between
appearances and any realities lying behind them. For him, the
distinctions between signifier and signified have finally
collapsed. Signs no longer refer to signifieds in any real sense.
The world consists of ‘floating signifiers’. These ideas he
expounded in his work Simulacra et Simulation (1981).The
notion of ‘hyperreality’ is born. Something is only real in the
sense of the media in which it moves.
b. Jean-Francois Lyotard
In his work Discours, figure (1971) Lyotard makes a
distinction which he believed structuralism had ignored. He
distinguishes between what is ‘seen’ and perceived in three
dimensions (the ‘figural’) and what is ‘read’: the two
dimensional text. Echoing Foucault, he argues that what is
regarded as rational thought by modernist thinkers is, in fact, a
form of control and domination.
Since postmodernism represents a decentered concept of

the universe in which individual works are not isolated
creations, much of the focus in the study of postmodern
literature is on intertextuality: the relationship between one text
(a novel for example) and another or one text within the
interwoven fabric of literary history. Critics point to this as an
indication of postmodernism’s lack of originality and reliance
on clichés. Intertextuality in postmodern literature can be a
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Post Modernism
reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended

discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style. In postmodern
literature this commonly manifests as references to fairy tales –
as in works by Margaret Atwood, Donald Barthelme, and many
other – or in references to popular genres such as sci-fi and
detective fiction. An early 20th century example of
intertextuality which influenced later postmodernists is "Pierre
Menard, Author of the Quixote" by Jorge Luis Borges, a story
with significant references to Don Quixote which is also a good
example of intertextuality with its references to Medieval
romances. Don Quixote is a common reference with
postmodernists, for example Kathy Acker's novel Don Quixote:
Which Was a Dream. Another example of intertextuality in
postmodernism is John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor which
deals with Ebenezer Cooke’s poem of the same name. Often
intertextuality is more complicated than a single reference to
another text. Robert Coover’s Pinocchio in Venice, for
example, links Pinocchio to Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.
Also, Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose takes on the form
of a detective novel and makes references to authors such as
Aristotle, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Borges.
Related to postmodern intertextuality, pastiche becomes
the continuation of it. Pastiche means to combine, or "paste"
together, multiple elements. In Postmodernist literature this can
be an homage to or a parody of past styles. It can be seen as a
representation of the chaotic, pluralistic, or information-
drenched aspects of postmodern society. It can be a
combination of multiple genres to create a unique narrative or
to comment on situations in postmodernity: for example,
William S. Burroughs uses science fiction, detective fiction,
westerns; Margaret Atwood uses science fiction and fairy tales;
Umberto Eco uses detective fiction, fairy tales, and science
fiction, Derek Pell relies on collage and noir detective, erotica,
travel guides, and how-to manuals, and so on. Though pastiche
commonly involves the mixing of genres, many other elements
are also included (metafiction and temporal distortion are
common in the broader pastiche of the postmodern novel). In
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Post Modernism
Robert Coover's 1977 novel The Public Burning, Coover mixes

historically inaccurate accounts of Richard Nixon interacting
with historical figures and fictional characters such as Uncle
Sam and Betty Crocker. Pastiche can instead involve a
compositional technique, for example the cut-up technique
employed by Burroughs. Another example is B. S. Johnson's
1969 novel The Unfortunates; it was released in a box with no
binding so that readers could assemble it however they chose.
Exercise
1. How does Post modernism happen?
2. How does it differ from modernism?
3. What is the idea of post modernism?
4. How does intertextuality happen?
92

Post Colonialism
Chapter 12:
POST-COLONIALISM
Introduction
Post-colonialism is an academic discipline featuring
methods of intellectual discourse that analyze, explain, and
respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and of
imperialism, to the human consequences of controlling a
country and establishing settlers for the economic exploitation
of the native people and their land. Drawing from post-modern
schools of thought, Post-colonial Studies analyse the politics of
knowledge (creation, control, and distribution) by analysing the
functional relations of social and political power that sustain
colonialism and neo-colonialism — the how and the why of an
imperial régime’s representations (social, political, cultural) of
the imperial coloniser and of the colonised people.
To comprehend this theory, students need to understand
world history and the impact to the world. Then, in the class
computer and LCD are quite needed as well as white board and
board marker.
Course Plan
Base Competence
By having this class, students are able to understand the
correlation between world history, its impact and the
development of literary theory.
Indicator
Students are to:
1. Define the meaning of Post Colonialism theory
2. Understand the history, the idea and the content of Post
Colonialism
3. Use the theory to analyze literary work
Time
2x50 minutes
Material
1. The history of Post Colonialism
2. The Idea of Post Colonialism
3. The Content of Post Colonialism
93

Post Colonialism
The Activity
1. Watch a movie related to colonialism
2. Brainstorming
Whilst (80 minutes)
1. Explain the meaning of Post Colonialism to students
2. Divide the students into some group to have discussion
3. Find the core idea of the theory
Closing (5 minutes)
1. Review and feedback
Make a respond paper of theory of Post Colonialism!
POST COLONIALISM
The History
Colonialism was presented as “the extension of Civilisation”,

which ideologically justified the self-ascribed superiority
(racial and cultural) of the European Western World over the
non-Western world, whereby imperial stewardship would
effect the intellectual and moral reformation of the coloured
peoples of the lesser cultures of the world. That such a divinely
established, natural harmony among the human races of the
world would be possible, because everyone — coloniser and
colonised — has an assigned cultural identity, a social place,
and an economic role within an imperial colony.
From the mid- to the late-nineteenth century, such racialist
group-identity language was the cultural common-currency
justifying geopolitical competition, among the European and
American empires, meant to protect their over-extended
economies. Especially in the colonisation of the Far East and in
the Scramble for Africa (1870–1914), the representation of a
94

Post Colonialism
homogeneous European identity justified colonisation — the

subjugation of (native) coloured people, the exploitation of
their labour, and the despoliation of the natural resources of
their countries. Hence, Belgium and Britain, and France and
Germany proffered theories of national superiority that justified
colonialism as delivering the light of civilisation to benighted
peoples. Notably, La mission civilisatrice, the self-ascribed
civilising mission of the French Empire, proposed that some
races and cultures have a higher purpose in life, whereby the
more powerful, more developed, and more civilised races have
the right to colonise other peoples, in service to the noble idea
of “civilisation” and its economic benefits.
The Idea
For the purposes of the study of literature the most

relevant concern of postcolonial thought has been the
decentralization of western culture and its values. Seen from
the perspective of a postcolonial world, it has been the major
works of thought of Western Europe and American Culture that
have dominated philosophy and critical theory as well as works
of literature throughout a large part of the world, especially
those areas which were formerly under colonial rule.
As a genre of contemporary history, Post-colonialism
questions and reinvents the modes of cultural perception — the
ways of viewing and of being viewed. As anthropology, Post-
colonialism records human relations among the colonial
nations and the subaltern peoples exploited by colonial rule. As
critical theory, Post-colonialism presents, explains, and
illustrates the ideology and the praxis of Neo-colonialism, with
examples drawn from the humanities — history and political
science, philosophy and Marxist theory, sociology,
anthropology, and human geography; the cinema, religion, and
theology; feminism, linguistics, and post-colonial literature, of
which the Anti-conquest narrative genre presents the stories of
colonial subjugation of the subaltern man and woman.
95

Post Colonialism
The Content
As an epistemology, as an ethics, and as a politics, the

field of Post-colonialism address the politics of knowledge —
the matters that constitute the post-colonial identity of a
decolonised people, which derives from:
(i) The coloniser’s generation of cultural knowledge about
the colonised people
(ii) How that Western cultural knowledge was applied to
subjugate a non–European people into a colony of the
European Mother Country, which, after initial
invasion, was effected by means of the cultural
identities of “coloniser” and “colonised”.
Pic 30. Chinua Achebe, the write of Things Fall Apart (1958),
described native life in the British colony of Nigeria.
A decolonised people develop a post-colonial identity

from the cultural interactions among the types of identity
(cultural, national, ethnic) and the social relations of sex, class,
and caste; determined by the gender and the race of the
colonised person; and the racism inherent to the structures of a
colonial society. In Post-colonial literature, the Anti-conquest
narrative analyses the Identity politics that are the social and
cultural perspectives of the subaltern colonial subjects — their
creative resistance to the culture of the coloniser; how such
cultural resistance complicated the establishment of a colonial
society; how the colonisers developed their post-colonial
96

Post Colonialism
identity; and how Neo-colonialism actively employs the Us-

and-Them binary social relation to view the non-Western world
as inhabited by The Other.
Post-colonialism is the critical destabilization of the
theories that support the ways of Western thought — Deductive
reasoning, the Rule of Law, and Monotheism — by means of
which colonialists “perceive”, “understand”, and “know” the
world. Post-colonial theory thus establishes intellectual spaces
for the subaltern peoples to speak for themselves, in their own
voices, and so produce the cultural discourses, of philosophy
and language, of society and economy, which balance the
imbalanced Us-and-Them binary power-relationship between
the colonist and the colonial subject.
As a contemporary-history term, post-colonialism
occasionally is applied temporally, to denote the immediate
time after colonialism, which is a problematic application of
the term, because the immediate, historical, political time is not
included to the categories of critical identity-discourse, which
deals with over-inclusive terms of cultural representation,
which are abrogated and replaced by post-colonial criticism. As
such, the terms post-colonial and post-colonialism denote
aspects of the subject matter, which indicate that the
decolonised world is an intellectual space “of contradictions, of
half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridity, and of
liminalities”.
These are some theoretians of Post Colonialism:
a. Edward Said
Said is concerned to relate poststructuralist
theories of discourse, to real political problems in the
world. His most important work in this respect is
Orientalism (1978). Said distinguishes between three
usages of the term ‘orientalism’.
Firstly, it refers to the long period of cultural and
political relations between Europe and Asia.
Secondly, the term is used to refer to the academic
study of oriental languages and culture which dates
from the early nineteenth century. And thirdly, it is
97

Post Colonialism
used to refer to the stereotypical views of the Orient

developed by many generations of western writers
and scholars, with their prejudiced views of
Orientals as inherently criminal and deceitful. He
includes evidence, not only from literature, but also
from such sources as colonial government
documents, histories, studies of religion and
language, travel books etc.
Pic 30. Edward Said
Orientalism served the purposes of western

hegemony: to legitimize western imperialism and
convince the inhabitants of such regions that
accepting western culture was a positive civilizing
process. In defining the East, orientalism also defined
what the West conceived itself to be.
In the light of Said’s theories, literature written by
native populations could now be seen in a new light.
Did the writers comply with western hegemony or
oppose it? Said criticized all modes of textual
analysis which considered texts as being separate
98

Post Colonialism
from the world in which they exist. The notion of it

being possible for there to be infinite possible
readings of a text could only be entertained by such
severing of the text from the real world.
b. Homi Bhabha
Homi Bhabha is essentially interested in exploring
no canonical texts which reflect the margins of
society in a postcolonial world. He explores the
subtle interrelations between cultures, the dominant
and the subjugated.
Bhabha argues that the interaction between
colonizer and colonized leads to the fusion of cultural
norms, which confirms the colonial power but also, in
its mimicry, threatens to destabilize it. This is
possible because the identity of the colonizer is
inherently unstable, existing in an isolated expatriate
situation. The colonizer’s identity exists by virtue of
its difference. It materializes only when in direct
contact with the colonized
c. Gayatri C. Spivak
Spivak has been described as the first truly feminist
postcolonial theorist. She criticizes western
feminism especially for focusing on the world of
white, middle-class heterosexual concerns. She is
also interested in the role of social class and has
focused on what in postcolonial studies has become
known as the ‘subaltern’, originally a military term
referring to those who are in a lower rank or
position. She is concerned that the ‘female subaltern’
is not misrepresented.
Exercise
1. What is Post Colonialism?
2. How did Post Colonialism become a theory?
3. How do you define Post Colonialism?
4. What is Edward Said’s idea about Post Colonialism?
99

Scoring and Evaluation
EVALUATION AND SCORING
A. Scoring Process
The scoring in Theory of Literature uses scoring evaluation system as
stated in Buku Panduan Penyelenggaraan Pendidikan IAIN Sunan Ampel
Tahun 2013 which consists of 4 elements, they are:
1. Mid Term (UTS)
Midterm will be held if the lectures have reached 6 meetings. The
material is taken from the indicators in each chapter. The questions are
in essay and open book.
2. Assignment
Assignment is given to the students to evaluate their understanding and
comprehension on the topic of lecture.it could be individual or in group.
The maximum score is 100.
3. Final test (UAS)
Final test will be held if the students can fulfill all material given by the
lecturer. There are 6 materials after Midterm so then the final test can
be run. The questions of final test are taken from the rest of the material
and in essay. The maximum score is 100.
4. Performance
Performance is a lecture’s notes on the students’ activity and their
involvement in the class. It could be: (1) punctuality (2) understanding
(3) idea or response toward material discussed. Maximum score is 100.
B. Final Score
Final score is a combination among Midterm (UTS) 20%, Assignment
30 %, Final test (UAS) 40 %, and Performance 10 %.
Final score is stated in number and has certain status as follows in table:
Interval Score Score (skala 4) Letter Pass/Fail

(scale 100)
91 – 100 3,76 – 4,00 A+ Pass
86 – 90 3,51 – 3,75 A Pass
81 – 85 3,26 – 3,50 A- Pass
100

Scoring and Evaluation
76 – 80 3,01 – 3,25 B+ Pass

71 – 75 2,76 – 3,00 B Pass
66 – 70 3,51 – 2,75 B- Pass
61 – 65 2,26 – 2,50 C+ Pass
56 – 60 2,01 – 2,25 C Pass
51 – 55 1,76 – 2,00 C- Fail
40 – 50 – 1,75 D Fail
< 39 0 E Fail
Keterangan:
a. If the final score is C- or D, students must retake the course in the
following semester.
b. The Final score of C or C+ could be revised by retaking the course
in following semester and the previous score is dismissed.
c. The formula for final score:
FS = (MTx20)+(Ax30)+(FTx40)+(Px10)
100
FS = final score
MT = Midterm
A = assignment
FT = final test
P = Performance
d. FS must consist of four elements, they are: MT, A, FT and

Performance. If one of them is zero so then the score is taken from
the rest of scores noted.
101

References
REFERENCES
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Seventh Edition.

Heini & Heini: Thomsons Learning, Inc. Cornel
University. 1999
Bennet, Andrew and Royle, Nicholas. Introduction to

Literature, Criticism and Theory. Third Edition. Pearson
Education Limited. United Kingdom.
Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basics. Routledge.
London. 2001
Bowie, Malcolm. Psychoanalysis and the Future of Theory.

Macwell Publishers. Massachussetts. USA. 1994
Carter, David. Literary Theory. Pocket Essentials. Herts. Great

Britain. 2006.
Castle, Gregory. The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory.

Blackwell Publishing. USA. 2007
Cefalu, Paul. Moral Identity In The Early English Modern
Literature. Cambridge University Press. 2004
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Oxford University Press. 2000
Eagleton, Mary. Ed. A Concise Companion to Feminist Theory.

Blackwell Publishing. USA. 2003.
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Anniversary

Edition. University of Minnesota press. Minneapolis.
2008
Eagleton, Terry and Milne, Drew. Ed. Marxist Literary Theory:

A Reader. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. United Kingdom.
2001
Hourihan, Margery. Deconstructing The Hero: Literary Theory

and Children’s Literature. Routledge. London. 1997
102

References
Lambropoulos, Vassilis. Twentieth Century Literary Theory :

An Introductory Anthology Intersections (Albany, N.Y.).
State University of New York Press. 1987
Maksey, Richard and Spinker, Michael. Ed. Possible World In

Literary Theory. Cambridge University Press. 1994
Pope, Rob. The English Studies Book: An Introduction To

Language, Literature and Culture. Second Edition.
Routledge. London. 2002
Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael. Ed. Literary Theory: An

Anthology. Second Edition. Blackwell Publishing. 2004
Rooney, Ellen. Ed. Feminist Literary Theory. Cambridge

University Press. UK. 2006
Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph. The Philosophy of Art.

University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 1989
Schmitz, Thomas A. Modern Literary Theory and Ancient

Texts: An Introduction. Transld. Blackwell Publishing.
USA. 2007
Selden, Raman, Widdowson, Peter and Brooker, Peter. A

Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Fifth
Edition. Pearson Education Limited. United Kingdom.
2005
Sorensen, Eli Park. Postcolonial Studies And The Literary:

Theory, Interpretation And The Novel. Palgrave
Macmillan. New York. 2010
Wolff, Janet. Hermeneutics Philosophy and the Sociology of

Art: An Aprroach to Some of the Epistimological
Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge and the
Sociology of Art and Literature. Rouledge and Kegan
Paul. London. 1975
Wolfreys, Julian, Robbins, Ruth, and Womack, Kenneth. Key

Concepts In Literary Theory. Second Edition. Edinburgh
University Press. 2006
103

CV
CURRICULUM VITAE
Itsna syahadatud Dinurriyah was born in Pamekasan 12

April 1976. She was the second child of the family. She spent
her childhood in Pamekasan by finishing her study in SDN
Jung Cang-cang I Pamekasan (1982-1988), SMP Negeri I
Pamekasan (1988-1991) and SMA negeri I Pamekasan (1991-
1994).
She moved to Surabaya after Airlangga University

accepted her as its student in 1995. She took English
department there by choosing literature as her major. She
continued her Master degree after 8 years working in some
institutions related to English. She finished her master in
Gadjah Mada University in 2010 in the major of American
Literature. The last, she joined in the workshop of Research
Method in Australian National University in 2013.
Some of her published researches are: Modern Fantacy

in Stefany Meyer’s Twilight Saga (2010), American
Nationalism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s My Kinsman Major
Moulineux(2011), Lady Gaga: An American Paradox (2012),
CHICKLIT MOVIES: An Attempt of Showing Identity or
Looking for Identity ? (2013), etc.
104

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THEORY OF LITERATURE:

A Handbook For English Department Undergraduate Students

Itsna Syahadatud Dinurriyah, M. A

Government of Indonesia (GoI) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB)

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