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SOCIAL CRITICISMS IN MAYA ANGELOU’S POE
MS
(A Semiotic Approach)
THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment
of Requirements for the SarjanaSastra Degree in English Department Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts of SebelasMaret University
by
ShefieldFahmysari C0309056
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
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MOTTOES
Innal Amra Kullahuu Lillah
Sesungguhnya Segala Urusan Itu di Tangan Allah SWT.
(QS. Ali Imran: 154)
Look like a girl,act like a lady,think like a man,and work like a boss.
(The anonymous)
There is always a way.
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For Family AndFriends
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Praise to Allah SWTfor always blessing and guiding me in finishing this
research. In writing this thesis, I also realized that I have been receiving tons of
encouragements from many people. Therefore, I would like to sincerely express my
deepest gratitude, particularly to:
1. Drs. RiyadiSantoso, M.Ed., Ph.D., as the Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine
Arts, Sebelas Maret University.
2. Drs. AgusHariWibowo, M.A, Ph.D., the Head of English Department.
3. Yusuf Kurniawan, S.S., M.A., my academic supervisor.
4. Drs. Mugijatna, M.Si., Ph.D., as my thesis supervisor, for all the guidance,
advices, and supports given.
5. Dra. Sri Kusumo Habsari, M.Hum., Ph.D., for all the guidance, advices, and
supports given.
6. All lecturers of the English Department, for the great lessons about
everything, not only about the courses but also about life.
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Aulia, Dwi Setya N, Mita R, Ulva, and Amalia R, for the great times and nice
discussions.
9. My beloved literature worshipers, especially to Mas Niko Fediyanto and
Mbak Nabil for those great references.
10.All of classmates in the English Department 2009, keep fighting guys!
11.Maya Angelou, for giving birth to many works about racial and gender
discriminations, with which finally teach me how to be a “Phenomenal
Woman”.
Surakarta, August 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover ...i
Approval of The Thesis Supervisor ...ii
Approval of The Board of Examiners ... iii
Pronouncement ...iv
Mottoes ... v
Dedication ...vi
Acknowledgement... vii
Table of Contents ...ix
Abstract ... x
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Research Background... 1
B. Research Questions ... 3
C. Research Limitation ... 4
D. Research Objectives ... 4
E. Research Benefits ... 4
F. Research Methodology... 5
G. Thesis Organization ... 8
CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW ... 9
A. Previous Researches ... 9
B. Semiotics of Poetry ... 11
1. The Indirectness ... 13
a. Displacing meaning ... 13
b. Distorting meaning ... 13
c. Creating meaning ... 14
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a. Semes and Presupposition ... 16
b. Clichés ... 17
c. Descriptive systems ... 17
4. Text Production ... 18
a. Expansion ... 18
b. Conversion ... 19
5. Interpretants ... 19
a. Lexematicinterpretant ... 20
b. Textual interpretant... 20
C. African American Women ... 21
D. Social Criticism in Literature ... 23
E. Biography of Maya Angelou ... 24
F. Frame of Thought ... 26
CHAPTER III : ANALYSIS ... 28
A. Social Criticisms in Maya Angelou’s poems ... 29
1. “Woman Work” ... 30
B. The Way Angelou Expresses Her Social Criticisms ... 61
CHAPTER IV : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ... 67
A. Conclusion ... 67
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ABSTRACT
Shefield Fahmysari. C0309056. 2014. Social Criticisms in Maya Angelou’s Poems. Undergraduate Thesis. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University.
The objectives of this research are to identify the social criticisms in Maya
Angelou’s poems and to describe how she expresses her social criticisms in her
poems.
This research employs semiotic approach and applies Riffaterre’s Semiotics of
Poetry theory to answer the problem statements. This thesis is a descriptive
qualitative library research. The data is divided into the main and secondary data. The main data or primary data of this research are taken from The Complete
Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (2009) published by Random House, Inc. The
selected poems are“Woman Work”, “Still I Rise”, “Televised”, “Phenomenal
Woman”, “Weekend Glory”, and “Awaking in New York”. Meanwhile, the
secondary data are taken from any sources that support the analysis of the data, both from books and online resources.
The six poems of Maya Angelou analyzed in this research contain social criticisms concerning the racism and sexism issues. They are the African-American woman duties as single parents, the African-African-American woman double
burdens as the “slave” descendent, the televised news’ exploitation of the Africans
hunger plague, the American’s standard of woman beauty, the White secularism, the racial and gender inequality in New York City. Furthermore, the way Angelou expresses her social criticisms is divided into four major ways. First, Angelou employs a simple idea structure written in easy understood word-choices of non African-American Vernacular English. Second, she employs numerous metaphors
as the attractive way to attract the readers’ curiosity in the process of
understanding the poem’s significance. Third, she uses several repetitions to
arouse the readers’ emotion in order to experience her sensitivity. Fourth, she uses
other texts in the form of written materials and life as the hypogram of the poem.
Based on the conclusion, it is recommended to other researchers to analyze social criticisms on poetry by usingother theories and approaches to enrich the type of research in English Department, especially the research on poetry.
