CHAPTER II
REVIEW ON LITERATURE
2.1. Literature and Poetry
Literature comes from the word littera (Latin) which is the smallest element of alphabetical writing (Klarer, 2004:1). This definition is too general in describing what literature is all about because it is not all written works can be considered as literature.
The definitions, therefore, usually include additional such as ‘aesthetic’ or ‘artistic’ to distinguish literary works from text of everyday use such as newspaper, legal documents or even scholarly writing.
(Klarer, 2004:1)
Based on the brief description above, being a form of written works of recognized artistic value is known as one of literature characteristic. Wellek and Warren (1956: 94-95) states that literature represents life. Life is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of the literary imitation. Literature is an expression of society. It means that in literary works, we can find phenomena of life in the society because literary work is the reflection of life.
manner that is felt by its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose. Poetry and poem describe a wide variety of spoken and written forms, styles, and patterns and also a wide variety of subjects. Because of variety, it is not possible to make a single, comprehensive definition. (Siswanto, 2015)
According to Understanding the Element of literature by Taylor Richard (1981), some of poets had defined poetry, they are:
S.T. Coleridge : Poetry is the product of the poet’s imagination and the best words in the best order
William Wordsworth : Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings Lucelles Ubercombie : Poetry is the expression of imaginative experience, valid,
simply as such and significant as such communicable given by language which employ every available and appropriate device.
Allen Morris : Poet in sense is a maker of experience
Emily Dickinson : Poetry is the concrete and artistic expression of the human merit in emotional and rhythmical language.
In analyzing poetry, one has to know the aspects of the poetry so it will be possible to decide which part of poetry that should be studied to get the analysis goal. According to Poetry and Prose Appreciation by L.G. Alexander (1977:1-24), the aspects are sense, feeling, tone and intention.
2.1.1. Sense
understand its meaning because some words in poem may have different meaning. By reading the poem over and over carefully, we can catch the meaning.
In this analysis, it seems impossible to get the meaning from the title, because Emily Dickinson names her poems by number. This can be understood as the influence of William Shakespeare who are the great poet and play writer in her era.
2.1.2. Feeling
Feeling is the attitude of the writer toward the subject of the matter. By reading a certain poem carefully, we could understand what does the poet think about the subject matter, how does the poet’s feeling towards the subject matter and what is the poet’s opinion about the subject matter.
2.1.3. Tone
Tone is an attitude of a poet toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.
2.1.4. Intention
The poet writes their poem with a special intention. It can be written to persuade, to describe, to explain or at least to express his feelings. Good poems is written because they have to be, not because their poet wants them to be. It means that, a good poem is written with an intention.
2.2. Textual Analysis
Poem is a written communication between the writer and the reader as poem is the text with various information that can be interpreted differently according to each reader’s background. To do this thesis, the writer needs a method to gain the goal of the study. Textual analysis is a method for communication researches that is used to describe and interpret characteristics of a recorded visual message. (Frey, 1999:225) In other word, textual analysis can be a method to interpret the message from Dickinson’s selected poem to find her ideas of death.
The main purpose of textual analysis is to describe the content, structure, and functions of the message contain in texts. (Frey, 1990:226) In this thesis, the wruter wants to describe and interpret the characteristics of Dickinson’s poem. The author wants to see her idea of death through her written poems that engage death as the main theme.
There are four major approaches in textual analysis according to Frey in
they are rhetorical criticism, content analysis, interaction analysis and performance studies.
2.2.1. Rhetorical Criticism
The terms, rhetoric and criticism, conjure up interesting images. Rhetoric often carries negative connotations, such as when it is applied to grand, eloquent, bombastic, or verbose discourse. For scholars, the word rhetoric is associated with Aristotle’s definition: “the available means of persuasion” and criticism is the “systematic process of illuminating and evaluating products of human activity” (Andrews, 1984: 4).
Rhetorical Criticism, therefore, is a systematic method for describing, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating the persuasive force of messages embedded within texts. The process serves five important functions (Andrews, 1983) including:
a. sheds light on the purposes of a persuasive message
b. can aid in understanding historical, social, and cultural contexts c. can be used as a form of social criticism to evaluate society
d. can contribute to theory building by showing how theories apply to persuasive discourse.
e. serves a pedagogical function by teaching people how persuasion works and what constitutes effective persuasion.
Contemporary rhetoric has expanded to incorporate a wide range of philosophical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives that are used to study the persuasive impact of many different types of texts and messages. There are four steps to conducting rhetorical criticism, they are:
a. Choosing a text(s) to study
b. Choosing a specific type of rhetorical criticism c. Analyzing the text(s) according to the method chosen d. Writing the critical essay
There are several types of rhetorical criticism and they may be used to answer a wide range of questions including: What is the relationship between a text and its context?; How does a text construct reality for an audience?; and What does a text suggest about the rhetoric?
2.2.2. Content Analysis
Content analysis is used to identify, enumerate and analyze occurrences of specific message and message characteristics embedded in texts. (Frey, 1990:236) This approach is chosen as the object of the analysis is poems. Poems contain specific message from the writer. Each poem has a main theme which is specific, so it can be said that poem has specific message.
times of message variable’s occurrence. Quantitative content analysis is the systematic and step-by-step procedure, that are used to answer research questions and test hypothesis. Quantitative analysis is considered as an unobtrusive technique because researchers study texts that already exist rather than asking people to produce texts.
Vast majority of content analyses employ quantitative procedures, which are involving selecting texts, determining the units to be
coded,developing content categories, training observers to code units, and analyzing the data.
a. Selecting texts which choosing appropriate texts to study such as,
newspapers, magazines, books, public service announcements, and Internet messages, etc.
b. Determining the unit of analysis which finding first identify the appropriate message unit to code (unitizing).
In analyzing, some units can be matter for the research. Any information can be unitizing depends on some point. There are five units in content analysis, including:
a. Physical units : the space and time devoted to content
b. Meaning units : which the remaining four types reside within, involve symbolic meaning
d. Referential units : also called character units, involve some physical or temporal unit referred to or alluded to within content e. Thematic units : topics contained within messages.
Developing content categories into which units can be classified, it is done through the use of nominal measurement procedures; this is a very creative process; there are an infinite number of categories into which units could potentially be classified. Analyzing the data, coding units into nominal categories, yields qualitative data in that what is being communicated is determined by the type of category.
2.2.3. Interaction Analysis
Interaction Analysis view interaction as a complex accomplishment that requires much knowledge on the part of individual communicators and the ability to coordinate behavior with others. To describe interaction, researchers focus on a number of characteristics including:
a. Linguistic features: Studies range from the analysis of particular words and sentence components (verbs), to nonverbal features (eye contact & touch), tomore interpretive aspects of language (powerful vs. powerless speech). b. Types of topics that people talk about.
c. The purposes of specific actions and utterances in an interaction.
the positive qualities or consequences associated with alternative choices; thorough and accurate assessment of the negative qualities or consequences associated with alternative choices.
Researchers interested in the functional nature of messages exchanged during interaction focus on the purpose of each communicator’s moves. Others analyze the structure of interaction by studying the relationship between conversants’ moves. Relating interaction to other variables is about most interaction analysts go beyond description to study the ways in which interaction is related to significant input and output variables.
Conducting interaction analysis involves two general tasks: Obtaining a sample of interaction, and analyzing that sample. In gathering a sample of interaction, researchers make choices that affect both the type and the quality of the data obtained, including the type of interaction’s data required, the desired location of the interaction, and the appropriate means for gathering the data.
2.2.4. Performance Studies
Performance study is the process of dialog engagement with one’s own and others’ aesthetic communication through the means of performance. Researchers interpret texts as a method of inquiry that enables them and audiences of performances to interpret the aesthetic richness of those texts. There are six steps in generating and reporting insights in performance studies, they are:
c. Testing: Establishes the range of legitimate understandings
d. Choosing: Question of selecting those valid interpretations to isolate one possible understanding to pursue.
e. Repeating: Sets and refines the researchers chosen interpretation.
f. Presenting: Report of what has been discovered through public performance; puts on a display for others’ consideration what the performance researcher has come to
understand.
2.3. Literature and Idea
Literature and ideas have very diverse way of relationship. Since literature is one of art, idea has an important role on the writing process. Wellek and Warren (1948:107) stated that literature is frequently considered as a form of philosophy, as “ideas” wrapped in form; and it is analyzed to yield “leading ideas”. This approach encourages the writer to summarize and to abstract works of art in terms of such generalization.
Rudolf Unger has most clearly defended an approach which, though not systematically ex-ploited before, had long been used. He rightly argues that literature is not philosophical knowledge translated into imagery and verse, but that literature expresses a general attitude toward life, that poets usually answer, unsystematically, questions which are also themes of philosophy but that the poetic mode of answering differs in different ages and situations. (Wellek and Warren, 1948:112)
According to Unger approach, the problems can be classified into 5 problems :
1. Problems of faith : relation of freedom and necessity, spirit and nature.
2. Religious problem : the interpretation of Christ, the attitude toward sin and salvation.
3. Problem of nature : question as the feelings for nature, but also question of myth and magic.
4. Problem of man : questions of the concept of man, man’s relation to death, man’s concept of love
5. Problem of society : questions about society, family and state.
2.4. Literature and Biography
Understanding poem is not as easy as understanding another literature works like prose, novel or play. Poems contain words which are ordered carefully to convey the writer’s thought. John Peck and Martin Coyle (1985:12) stated it is possible to read a poem over and over again and yet still remain at a lost as to what it means. This phenomenon happens because poem usually use words that represent the other meaning than it should be.
In novel, a character can be briefly explained by the author. In the playwright, we can even see the set of the story because the author explains it specifically, but in poem, the messages are compressed and concentrated in certain words. We should know the context, the possible meanings of word and even the used of punctuation that may also contain any purposes. To analyze a poem, we should determine the object we want to analyze to define what kind of approach that we used. There are two kinds of approach based on object that we want to analyze:
“One approach is to concentrate on the poet himself. Underlying this approach very often is the idea that poetry is primarily an expression of the poet’s emotions.”
... “The second approach, and the one we shall be following throughout this section, concentrates on discussing the poem itself.”
(Peck & Coyle, 1985:12)
This approach helps the researcher to understand the poetry based on the poet’s feeling or idea that are shown on their poem.
The second approach is focused on the poem itself. It is concentrated on the writing process and the content of the poem. This approach considers the poet as ‘the maker’, not the spot light of the poem. The analysis will discuss about the language style or pattern that used to portray an idea and will see the efficiency of each diction that are chosen.
In the first approach, we focus to study the poet, in this case, the biography of the poet is needed. Wellek and Warren (1948:67-74) explained the relation about literature and biography. They stated that:
The most obvious cause of a work of art is its creator, the author; and hence an explanation in terms of the personality and the life of the writer has been one of the oldest and best established methods of literary study.
It can be said that life experience of the poet has a big influence on his works. Traumatic experience can even change his whole perspective about anything and influence his work. InPsychological Trauma and the Adult Survivor: Theory, Therapy, and Transformation by I. Lisa McCann, Laurie Anne Pearlman (1990:35-56), they said there is evidence there some traumatic victims develop aggressive and antisocial behaviour patterns.
The society also has a big role in someone’s experience of life. Society
“A writer inevitably ex- presses his experience and total conception of life ; but it would be manifestly untrue to say that he expresses the whole of life — or even the whole life of a given time—completely and exhaustively. It is a specific evaluative criterion to say that an author should express the life of his own time fully, that he should be "representative" of his age and society. Besides, of course, the terms "fully" and "representative" require much interpretation: in most social criticism they seem to mean that an author should be aware of specific social situations, e.g., of the plight of the proletariat, or even that he should share a specific attitude and ideology of the critic.”
In this case, Puritan is the social background of Emily Dickinson. She was born and raised in Puritan Era that undeniably influenced her attitude about everything, including death. Puritan era is the time when the people were turning back into Christianity.
2.5. Idea of Death in WesternCulture
A lot of critics have argued intensively concerning Dickinson’s poems on death and their topics are various, such as exploring her different themes, observing and speculating on her religious beliefs. George and Barbara Perkins (1999:972) praised Dickinson that “she remains incomparable because her originality sets her apart from all others, but her poems shed the unmistakable light of greatness”. Her poems on death stand remarkable in the American history.
in dealing with death may have lot similarity on Dickinson’s attitude. Janaro and Altshuler (1993:385) categorized the attitudes toward death in order to present different concepts of death and to find the ways for people to overcome the fear of death. They collected their data from different sources such as: philosopher’s views, famous writer’s ideas and religious beliefs. Their outcomes are arranged into six categories, they are:
2.5.1. Death is Enemy
Janaro and Altshuler (1993:387) first stated that death is the enemy of all human beings. It is a source of great fear; therefore, nobody wants to mention it. The concept of death fosters fear in people because it is inevitable and beyond their control. Death will always remain an unwanted reality. Furthermore, death is cruel because it takes away people’s opportunity to live their lives and fulfill their goals. As a result, it is the enemy that is totally unkind and unfavorable.
2.5.2. Death Has No Self-interest
The second concept of death is that death without self- Interest is when dying people assign an empty value to their lives, and then they may view death as an escape from this personal void. In this perspective, the view is from people’s reaction toward death, it does not focus on the image of death itself.
Death is considered as a leveler that makes every human being equal. Every life finally ends and turns into dust and this makes life means nothing. No matter who they are, death is the final destination for all of them (Janaro and Altshuler, 1993:388).
2.5.4. Death is Reward or Punishment
Death is as reward or punishment in the afterlife. People believe that they were born on earth in order to work for God. Their death means that they have already accomplished their mission. Some further believe that people will reunite with their relatives and loved ones after they die. Furthermore, people’s actions during their lifetime will determine their disposition in their afterlife. Those who do good deeds will be rewarded with heaven, while those who do bad deeds will be remanded to hell as their punishment. Then, death
can be either reward or punishment for dying people in their afterlife (Janaro and Altshuler, 1993:392).
2.5.5. Death is Seen as Fatalism
especially prominent in the Puritan religion. Human beings cannot determine their own fate, thus God alone has the power and authority to determine the death of everyone’s life. People believe that it is because of God’s affection that He predestines people to their death. He wants to bring his people to reside with Him, in life everlasting; as a result, death is a reward because it would bring the dying person to enjoy this new life, in heaven. For this reason, death is the predetermined end and the fatalistic idea for all human beings on earth (Janaro and Altshuler, 1993:393).
2.5.6. Death as Self-Punishment
