To be Enchanted or Enchanting? A Fairytale Reproduced.

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To be Enchanted or Enchanting?

A Fairytale Reproduced

A Research Paper

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Sarjana Sastra Degree

AMALIYAH ERTANTI 0704497

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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To be Enchanted or Enchanting?

A Fairytale Reproduced

Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni

Oleh

Amaliyah Ertanti

Juni 2013

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

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To be Enchanted or Enchanting? A Fairytale Reproduced

A Research Paper

by

Amaliyah Ertanti 0704497

Approved by

Main Supervisor

Dr. Bachrudin Musthafa, MA NIP. 195703101987031001

Co-Supervisor

Nicke Yunita M, S.Pd., M.A. NIP. 198206302005012001

Head of English Education Department Faculty of Language and Art Education

Indonesia University of Education

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ABSTRACT

This research entitled “To be Enchanted or Enchanting: A Fairytale

Reproduced” focuses on examining the ways in which Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” present a reproduced version of “Cinderella” tales. The framework of feminist literary criticism and subjectivity by Trites (1997) is used to analyze the research. The research employs a textual analysis approach in which the writer describes, interprets, and analyzes the text to answer the problem of the research.

The ways of Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” reproduce the retelling of classic fairytale “Cinderella” is depicted mainly from different characteristics of the

main female character which are rebellious, active, determined, powerful, brave, intelligent, assertive, and independent. Moreover, the magical element in “Ella

Enchanted” serves a different role that marks Ella’s effort in breaking her curse

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides a general description of the research. It consists of the background, the reason for choosing topic, the research question, the purposes of the research, the scope of the research, the research method, the significance of the research, the clarification of terms, and the organization of the research.

1.1 Background

In some contexts, women are labeled as subordinated. To cover this, Ray (2006) argues that women are not only treated as subordinate to men but are also subject to descrimination, humiliations, exploitations, opression, and violence. Therefore, the phenomenon leads to the assumption that women are powerless creature. Ray further explains that women experience descrimination and unequal treatment in terms of basic right such as making decision. Therefore, it means that women are confined in making decisions.

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a subject are able to choose the preference in their world. Such as to become the figure they willingly want, to be good or bad, pretty or even ugly person, and to obey or disobey. However, Geldard and Geldard (2004) assert that sometimes their preference will cause a conflict between them and the social expectation. Therefore, in order to become free in showing the identity, women have to break the common social assumptions, which are weak, passive, or “women are

subordinated” (Ray, 2006) to gain a better subject position as subject in the

society.

Nealon and Giroux (2003) and McCallum (1999) consider subjectivity as a perception of personal identity that is controlled by individual as a subject. It is also related to the idea that every individual is different from other selves in holding position within society and being capable of deliberate thought and action. Subjectivity also conveys the concept of personhood‟s understanding based on social laws. Thus, subjectivity principally is considered as a maturity process in dealing with relationship between person and others.

The issues on character‟s subjectivity are often presented in the literary works, in this case young adult fiction. One of young adult fiction that presents the issue on subjectivity is a novel entitled “Ella Enchanted” written by Gail Carson Levine. Ella as main female character in the novel chooses to break „the

gift of obedience‟ from a fairy named Lucinda since it is considered as a curse

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Besides subjectivity, the phenomenon of main female character can be analyzed also from a feminist perspective. As Trites (1997) argues that the main aim of feminism is to support women in making decision and to raise societal respect for their decision. Furthermore, the most important thing is the essence of the decision that women know exactly the choice they have made. In this research, the writer focuses on the ways in which main female character in “Ella

Enchanted” acts as a subject in her ordeal. The intertextual connection to

“Cinderella” story present in the plot and characters. More importantly, the writer

focuses the research on how the fairytale is reproduced in “Ella Enchanted”.

Hence, the writer chooses Charles Perrault‟s “Cinderella” as a pre-text of the

fairytales.

1.2 Reason for choosing topic

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identity‟ become the important aspect in adolescence period. Young female

character, which is described by woman writer, brings the strong role as female protagonist that makes the topic of feminist literary criticism is also important to discuss in this research.

1.3 Research Question

To specify the research, this research is guided by following research question:

 In what ways does “Ella Enchanted” present a reproduced version of

“Cinderella” tales?

1.4 Purpose of the research

The research is purposed to examine the ways in which “Ella Enchanted” reproduces the fairytale of“Cinderella”

1.5 Scope of the research

The focus of the research is the novel entitled“Ella Enchanted” written by

Gail Carson Levine. The writer limits the study on the ways in which “Ella

Enchanted” reproduces the fairytale pre-text of “Cinderella” under the

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1.6 Research method

Naturally, the research is qualitative in which the writer tries to emphasize on words explanation rather than data measurement. As Maxwell (1996) states

that qualitative research focuses on specific situations or people, and it‟s

emphasizes on words rather than numbers. Moreover, this research is conducted in textual analysis approach. According to Frey, Botan, and Kreps (1999) textual analysis is the method used to describe and interpret the recorded or visual message. It step by step procedure and aims to describe the content, structure, and functions of the messages contained in the texts systematically. Therefore, it focuses to the content of the text to analyze and describe its meaning.

For that reason, this research is also descriptive. According to Nazir (2005)

through his book “Metode Penelitian” (6thed) descriptive analysis is a method

used in the researches of an object, a set of condition, a system of thought or an event that take place in the present time. Moreover, Whitney (1960, as cited in nazir 2005) descriptive analysis is fact identification with a proper interpretation. Thus, the goal of descriptive research is to describe the fact, the condition, and the interpretation of the text systematically.

1.6.1 Research Procedure

The procedure of the research follows these steps:

 Choosing the main source of the research, that is novel entitled “Ella

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 Reading closely and repeatedly the novel as the main source of the

research.

 Deciding main issue of the research, that is “Ella Enchanted” as the

retelling of classic a fairytale.

 Undertaking library research by collecting and comprehending the

references which is related to the research in order to gain a better understanding about the issue of the research.

 Finding and taking notes of textual evidence.

 Categorizing the textual evidences.

 Analyzing and interpreting textual evidences.

 Analyzing the data using the framework of subjectivity and feminist

perspective.

 Drawing conclusion and suggestion.

1.6.2 Data Collection

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1.7 Significance of the research

The writer expects that the result of the research gives a contribution to the library collection about feminist literary criticism and subjectivity. It is also expected that this research can be used as the reference for next researchers in the English Department of UPI or for those who are interested in investigating the subjectivity, particularly in the context of fantasy fiction.

1.8 Clarification of terms

 Subjectivity

According to McCallum (1999), subjectivity is a perception of personal identity that is controlled by individual as a subject. Intrinsically, it is a personal maturity about relationship between the self and others, and exploration of relationship between the self, the society, and the world.  Feminist literary criticism

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 Identity

Barker (2000) argues that identity is the conception holds and creates by individual. It always in process rather than fix entity.

 Young adult

Based on Literature For Today’s Young Adults, young adult includes students in junior high school and those who graduating from high school and still finding their way into adult life. By young adult literature, it means the readers between the approximate ages of 12 and 18 choose to read (Donelson, &Nilsen, 2001:3).

 Fantasy Fiction

Fantasy fiction is the well-known genres and old form because its relation to the genre of myth, legend, and fairytales of our childhood. It is the story of fairy, magic, sorcery, and enchantment. Fantasy fiction also considers as an imaginative fiction that allows young readers to explore major life mysteries without limited by size, time, or space. It is combine imaginative and realistic elements because it often uses to satirize or rewrite reality (Sarick, 2009; Gates, Steffel, Molson, 2003; Grenby, 2008).  Fairytales

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 Young adult literature

Niday (2000) defines young adult literature is literature written for and marked to young adult. It usually includes a teenage as the protagonist, first-person perspective, adult characters in background, limited number of characters, positive resolution, and approximate length of 125 to 250 pages.

 Pre-text

Pre-text is a source that associates to the retelling text (Stephens and McCallum, 1998)

 Metanarrative

Stephens and McCallum (1998) argue that metanarrative is a narration which commonly grounds the retelling version of fairytales. It shaped the pre-text and resembled it as a new textual and ideological structure. Thus, metanarrative is a version that contains implicit and invisible ideologies, system, and assumption which operate globally to explain knowledge and experience

1.9 Organization of the research

This research paper is organized into five chapters:  Chapter I : Introduction

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the research question, the purposes of the research, the scope of the research, the research method, the significance of the research, the clarification of terms, and the organization of the research.

 Chapter II : Literature Review

This chapter presents the theoretical framework that underpins the research. It elaborates feminist literary criticism, young adult literature and fantasy fiction, fantasy fiction which is derived from fairytales tradition, feminist issue in fairytales, subjectivity in modern fairytales, intertextuality and feminist perspective in “Ella

Enchanted”, also previous studies. Moreover, synopsis of

the novel is also included in this chapter.

 Chapter III : Research Method

This chapter explains a methodological aspect of the research to find out the answer of the research question. It includes research question, research procedure, data source and collection, data analysis, framework, and data presentation.

 Chapter IV : Findings and Discussion

This chapter reports all findings by elaborating the textual

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at the discussion of the reproduction of fairytales in “Ella

Enchanted”, it is necessary to look at how the female

character in the story is portrayed. Then, an analysis of how

the story employs fairytale‟s plot to reproduce the fairytale

is discussed as well. More importantly, investigating intertextual affiliation helps to see ideological position of the story.

 Chapter V : Conclusion and Suggestion

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter explains a methodological aspect of the research to find out the answer of the research question. It includes research question, research procedure, data source and collection, data analysis, framework, and data presentation.

3.1 Research Questions

The research attempts to address the following questions:

 In what ways does “Ella Enchanted” present a reproduced version of

“Cinderella” tales?

3.2 Research Procedure

This research is basically qualitative in nature. As Maxwell (1996) states that qualitative research focuses on specific situations or people, and it’s

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qualitative research is a fundamentally interpretive and concerned to subjective opinions, experiences, and feelings. More explain, Maxwell (1996) states the purposes of qualitative approach are to figure out the meaning of events, situations, and actions; to understand the particular context; identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences, and generate new grounded theories; to understand the process by which events and actions take place; and developing causal explanation.

Furthermore, this research employs in textual analysis approach since it tries to describe, interpret and analyze the data rather than to count. According to Frey, Botan, and Kreps (1999) textual analysis is the m

ethod used to describe and interpret the recorded or visual message. It aims at describing the content, structure, and functions of the messages contained in the texts. Moreover, McKee (2003) explain that textual analysis is a way for researcher to gather information about how the text makes sense of the world and the researcher attempts to interpret the text in order to obtain the meaning, interpret reality, and understand the text better. Therefore, it focuses to the content of the text to analyze, describe, and interpret its meaning. Further, Frey, Botan, and Kreps (1999) argue that qualitative textual analysis is the method that researchers are more interested in the meanings associated with messages and it is a systematic, step by step procedure used to answer research question.

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focusing on the main female character’s subjectivity. Here are the research procedures:

 Choosing the main source of the research, that is novel entitled “Ella

Enchanted” written by Gail Carson Levine

 Reading closely and repeatedly the whole novel as the main source of the

research.

 Deciding main issue of the research, that is “Ella Enchanted” as the

retelling of classic a fairytale.

 Undertaking library research by collecting and comprehending the

references which is related to the research in order to gain a better understanding about the issue of the research.

 Finding and taking notes of textual evidence from the novel “Ella

Enchanted” containing the issue of fairytale’s reproduction.

 Determining categories for collecting data. The categories are: the

influence of ‘gift of obedience’ towards Ella’s power and powerlessness in facing direct order (Appendix A), Main female character’s subjectivity in G. C. Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” (Appendix B), intertextuality in G. C. Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” (Appendix C), “Ella Enchanted” fairytale plot based on Vladimir Propp’s 31 functions (Appendix D),

 Place the textual evidences into the categorizations.

 Analyzing and interpreting textual evidence. Moreover, the data which is

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attention to the argumentation of subjectivity which purposed by Trites (1997) and McCallum (1998).

 Drawing conclusion and suggestion.

3.3 Data Source and Collection

The main source of this research is the novel entitled “Ella Enchanted” written by Gail Carson Levine and published by Harper Collins in New York, 1997. The novel consists of 232 pages and divided into twenty nine chapters and an epilogue. Aspect of the data is the deconstruction of “Cinderella” through the metanarrative “Ella Enchanted” that presents female character with subjectivity.

The secondary data is gained from reading journal articles, books and literature related to the investigated, analyzed, and interpreted issue. The data is analysed within the framework of feminist literary criticism and subjectivity.

3.4 Data Analysis

The data are in the form of textual evidence which can be found in the main female character’s thoughts, feeling, choice and actions. Afterward, the

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Enchanted” has reproduced a classic tale “Cinderella”. The last step of writer in

analyzing the data is interpreting and discussing the data. Finally, the analysis of the data arrives to the drawing conclusion and suggestion.

3.5 Framework

The research is conducted using feminist literary criticism and subjectivity to examine the ways Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” reproduces a classic tale “Cinderella”. The strong role of main female character leads the research under

the framework of subjectivity and feminist literary criticism. Therefore, the writer took some steps. First, choose and examined the data from the novel entitled

“Ella Enchanted” written by Gail Carson Levine. Second, the writer examined

the textual evidence that related to the main female character’s subjectivity. Last, the writer analyzed and interpreted the textual evidence of main female character’s subjectivity which is found in the novel by applying feminist literary criticism’s view.

3.6 Data Presentation

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writer’s interpretation of data, and the data can be displayed comprehensively.

The data will be categorized into table as follow:

Appendix A: The Influence of ‘gift of obedience’ towards Ella’s power and powerlessness in facing direct order.

NO PAGE CHAPTER CONTEXT TEXTUAL

EVIDENCE

ANALYSIS NOTE

Appendix B: Main Female Character’s Subjectivity in G. C. Levine “Ella

Enchanted”

NO CONTEXT TEXTUAL EVIDENCE CHAPTER,

PAGE

ANALYSIS

Appendix C: Intertextuality in “Ella Enchanted”

NO PAGE CHAPTER CONTEXT TEXTUAL

EVIDENCE

ANALYSIS PURPOSE

Appendix D: Fairytale Plot Based on Vladimir Propp’s 31 Functions

NO FAIRYTALE PLOT ACCORDING TO

PROPP’S FUNCTION

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CHAPTER V

CONLUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

After describing and discussing the findings of the research, this chapter presents conclusions which are drawn from the previous chapter. This chapter also provides some suggestions for the readers and the future research deals with the same issue of fairytale retelling.

5.1 Conclusions

“Ella Enchanted” presents Ella as the main female character with

different characterization from other female characters in fairytales tradition. Ella emphasizes the power and effort of a main female character in the process of achieving human liberation. Although she is bound under a spell, she is able to make decision for her own good. Ella’s action to break the curse indicates that

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The main female character’s choice and her power to achieve her

liberation clearly relate to her subject position in a society. In this case, Ella’s subjectivity is constructed through her actions in the novel such as her different ways in holding positions and deliberating her thoughts. Moreover, her subjectivity is also formed through her surviving in different social conditions and surviving against dominant male discourse in that society, her interaction with others, her ways of facing problem, and her perception of herself. The intertextual connection in the text is also shaped the main female character’s subjectivity. Ella, as the main female character, presents that she has through the stage of creating her identity through her efforts, voice, power, and actions. Afterward, she has successfully achieved her goal to be the subject as she wants. In other words, learn from Cinderella as pre-text, Ella’s character seems to empower the readers that women has her own choice in order to get her right and to be the subject as she wants to be.

The ways of young adults to grow up being a person shaped the maturity process of them. They are confronted with many challenges in finding their personal identity to be the subject as they wants. In this way, young adult fiction entitled “Ella Enchanted” reflects those challenges. One of the challenges is human’s liberation to choose her own decision rather than following someone

else’s expectation. The young females have to struggle and fight own rights.

Through the novel, Ella as young female shows the message of self-defined. Therefore, Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” tries to liberate the readers that young

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woman. Moreover, the concept of ‘happily ever after’ that finally achieved by

main female character in the novel shows that being happy depends on the power and decision of a subject.

Overall, “Ella Enchanted” follows traditional fairytale plot that the readers are able to make intertextual connection to the story “Cinderella”. However, the reproduction of “Cinderella” in “Ella Enchanted” serves new ideological purposes. In this way, Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” presents the main female character of modern fairytale with subjectivity in which the main female character holds her own voice, makes her own decision, gains power of her own, and finally achieves her goal to be the subject as she wants.

5.2 Suggestions

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To be Enchanted or Enchanting? A Fairytale Reproduced.

To be Enchanted or Enchanting?

A Fairytale Reproduced

To be Enchanted or Enchanting?

A Fairytale Reproduced

To be Enchanted or Enchanting? A Fairytale Reproduced

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background

1.2

Reason for choosing topic

1.3

Research Question

1.4

Purpose of the research

1.5

Scope of the research

1.6

Research method

1.7

Significance of the research

1.8

Clarification of terms

1.9

Organization of the research

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Questions

3.2 Research Procedure

3.3 Data Source and Collection

3.4 Data Analysis

3.5

Framework

3.6

Data Presentation

CHAPTER V

CONLUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions

5.2 Suggestions

REFERENCES