POST-FEMINISM AS LITERARY CRITICISM
Mei 19, 2020
Oleh: Muhammad Alif Faturrachman
(Founder Mediatikusastra)
Image Source: Medium.com
It is widely acknowledged that literature is
a reflection of society. On one the most general level, most literature
portrays people engaging in social interactions. Thus, literature gives an
image of society in words just as the bathroom mirror gives a reflected visual
image of ourselves (Wofford, 2015). The way that literature reflects society
through the work of many authors has represented all kinds of aspects in
society such as social, political, ecological, historical, and many others
through their works. The fact that literature itself is being composed of
human emotion, activity, and experience during both good and bad social-politic
condition, in this case, the authors themselves have proved that most literary works are the reflection of the society itself (Patva, 2017).
Therefore, it is true that literature does reflect the condition of the society
in its contemporary or even in the past and also it reflects how the author
views these social conditions through their works. Moreover, literature itself
is not just a social ‘product’ that reflects the current society, but it is
also a form of social criticism.
For
example, George Orwell (1944) wrote Animal Farm, respectively, to express his
criticism toward society and human nature. Animal Farm, written in 1944, is a
book that tells the animal fable of a farm in which the farm animals revolt
against their human masters. It is an example of social criticism in literature
in which Orwell satirized the events in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Therefore, literature itself is a valid form of criticism toward social or
political issues that happen in the world. The issue in our society such as
class division, abuse of power, feminism, and many others are being criticized
through literary work. In addition, social criticism through the media of
literature has become widely popular through the ages, the social issue such as
feminism has already claimed its own place in the line of social criticism
through the art of literature.
The
term 'feminism' was coined in 1960. Before that, the central concept
behind it
was known as women's rights. Feminism has three waves. The first wave
had taken
place between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the
20th
century. Already in 1999 called the suffragette movement (Hartley,
1999). In
our society, femininity and masculinity are the most common factors to
distinguish between women and men. Feminine is considered to be only
appropriate to appear in women. While the masculine traits that men tend
to
have been considered to make them superior. In fact, femininity and
masculinity
are not conditions that arise due to the biological factors, but
conditions
that are formed by social (Fitria, 2016). Therefore, both women and men
have
the same opportunity to have femininity and masculinity in themselves. The struggle of the feminism movement in pursuit of gender equality between
men and
women in all of the social aspects have led to many assumptions of what
is
‘equal’. While in the past, the views that women throughout history are
being put on a position that is rather inequal
to men and often being objectified that they do not possess the same
rights as men, therefore, the feminist movement emerged to argues that
women should be equal to men and should also hold all rights that are
possessed
by men in society.
The
issue of gender equality has been brought to the literary works by some authors
and has been criticized by society itself. In addition, “Gender and Water
Network” (n.d.) described that through a
long history of the feminist movement since Christine de Pizan who wrote Epitre
au Dieu d'Amour (Epistle to the God of Love) in the 15th century. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and
Modesta in Pozzo in Forzi worked in the 16th
century. Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Anne Bradstreet, and Francois
Poullain de la Barre wrote during the 17th, today, the position of women in the
society has increased rapidly, and even some have surpassed men in several
aspects of social, economic, and politics. However, having women stood up and
secure themselves in the politics of the society that once have been dominated
by the patriarchal system is still resulting in dissatisfaction among women.
Therefore, the concept of post-feminism was proposed as both correction and
continuation of the feminism concept.
According
to Mambrol (2017) in his essay on Post-Feminism, there are no clear agreements
about how to define the concept of post-feminism since many have their own
assumption of what the term actually defines, this results in contradiction
among each other in what they say about the term. However, he stated that the
prefix ‘post’ in this context appears to mean ‘going beyond’ or ‘superseding’.
Therefore, the term post-feminism could be seen as a confident announcement
that feminism has achieved its key aims and that there is full equality for all
women and a blurring of the boundaries between traditional ascriptions of
gender.
In support of this statement, Macdonald (1995) stated that the
post-feminism movement takes the stings out of feminism, in this case, she
refers to the removal of the aspect of politics in feminism and claim on the focus
of self-empowerment for women. In short, although that feminism has reached its
goal of achieving equality and remove the great boundaries between men and
women that once existed in the society, some women are yet have not fully
achieved the satisfaction of that equality. In reality, women already have the
same opportunities as men in various fields, such as in getting an education,
employment and also being involved in politics. However, this does not fully
benefit women as now women are being captive by their own expectation of
achieving greatness and tend to forget about what feminism is actually is, that
is self-empowerment. Therefore, the post-feminism concept focuses more on the
personal being to self-empower women.
In
conclusion, Because of the literary works are in fact the mirror of
the society which it could represent how the social condition or the social
issues such as the feminism itself in real life depicted by the authors, the concept of post-feminism
proposed by Macdonald (1995) could be employed as a mean of literary
criticism theory to identify and analyze how women characters in
literary works might have in such a position where they are being
discouraged by the society that they lived in and how they empower
themselves in order to break free from the situation of being
underestimated by the society or the patriarchy itself.
REFFERENCES
Fitria,
S. (2016). Novel “the namsake” karya
jhumpa lahiri: merayakan feminitas dalam perspektif posfeminisme. Retrieved
from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WeNoZGiX4OA3ooxcSk6UdCkFduurDmkd/view
Gender and Water Network. (n.d.). History and theory of feminism. Retrieved from
http://www.gender.cawater-info.net/knowledge_base/rubricator/feminism_e.htm
Hartley,
J. (1999). Uses of television.
London; New York: Rutledge.
Macdonald,
M. (1995). Representing women: myth of feminity
in popular media.London: Bloomsbury Academic
Mambrol,
N. (2017). Post-Feminism: An Essay. Retrieved
from https://literariness.org/2017/10/25/post-feminism-an-essay/
Orwell,
G. (1945). Animal farm. London:
Secker and Warburg
Patva,
D. (2017). Literature is the reflection
of society. Retrieved from https://www.boloji.com/articles/49632/literature-is-the-reflection-of-society
Wofford,
L. (2017). How is literature the mirror
of society?. Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-literature-mirror-society-504064
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BIODATA PENULIS
Muhammad Alif Faturrachman kerap
disapa dengan panggilan “Alif”, “Alep”, “Toad” adalah seorang pemuisi amatiran
serta salah satu Founder dari Mediatikusastra. Ia memiliki passion di
bidang desain grafis dan komputer dengan jejak rekam petualangan sebagai
lulusan “terbaik” dari SMK Negeri 1 Sungailiat, sebuah gelar yang sengaja ia
klaim sepihak agar terdengar prestis. Kini, takdir membawa Alif ke jurusan Sastra Inggris di sebuah
universitas negeri di Indonesia, dimana ia harus meninggalkan mimpi menjadi seorang game
developer atau seorang desainer grafis dan apalah itu mimpi-mimpi yang pernah ia
impikan.
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