material about literure
12 March 2014 22:07:11
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WHAT IS LITERATURE?
According to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary, literature is “written artistic works especially those with a high and lasting artistic value”. It can be said that literature is a written works that used special or certain ways in producing it. Literature was made by human. Human can express everything in their mind in order to create a good and interesting literary works. They can re-present real human life, creating fiction story to entertain the reader, and so on. As stated by Hardjana, in his book Kritik Sastra:
“ Sastra sebagai pengungkapan baku dari apa yang telah disaksikan orang tentang kehidupan, apa yang telah dipermenungkan, dan dirasakan orang mengenai segi-segi kehidupan yang paling menarik minat secara langsung lagi kuat. Pada hakekatnya adalah suatu pengungkapan kehidupan lewat bentuk bahasa” (Hardjana, 1991: 10).
The writer or the author have a purpose when they create literary works. It could be a funny story, tragedy, folklore, etc. It depends on their imagination. In creating a literary work the author or the writer should know about how to create a good literary work. They should know about how to develop a theme into a good arrangement of story. It was supported by the choices of words, setting, plot, point of view, background of the story, the characterization, and the message that would be share to the reader. All of them are included in instrinsic elements of literature. In the other hand, intrinsic elements of literature can help the reader in understanding more about the literature works itself. Unconsciously when they read one of the literary work, they will try to gained what is going to say by the author.
The students are asked to write a literary analysis in order to make them aware and know well about how and why poem, drama, novel or play was written. Before analyzing a literature, the students should remember that the author have a reason or purpose in creating a literary works. Therefore when they make an essay related to the literary works, they should focus on what the author’s thingking, give the explanation about that idea, and gain more deeper about that idea of creating literary works. Another way to analyze a literary works is using the students’ own perspective. Rather than thinking about the author’s intentions, the students can develop an argument based on any intrinsic elements (or combination of terms) listed below.
A. INTRINSIC ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE
1. Character
According to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary, Character is “ the particular combination of qualities in a person or place that makes them different from others”. That meaning is related to the quality of someone. In a story the meaning of character according to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary is a person represented in a film, play, or story. Not only in the story but also in everyday live, character development also happen to every people as the main character in their everyday live. Character development is the change that a character undergoes from the beginning of a story to the end. Character can be main, secondary or third. In a literary work a character is developed by (1) action; (2) speech; (3) appearance; (4) Other character's comments. It means that, other characters' comments help form judgment of the characters by supporting other characters' actions speech, appearance, and author's comments; (5) Author's comments: The wording the author uses in the narrative adds to characterization; (6) Unity of character and action: the character must be credible. If the character changes then the change must be shaped by events which the author is obligated to explain how they impacted to create the character's change.
Types of characters:
a. Protagonist
· Central character
· Person on whom action centers
· Character who pushes the action forward
· Character who attempts to accomplish something
· Usually seen as a good person or hero/heroine
· Usually round and dynamic
b. Antagonist
· Character or force that holds the action back
· Character who wants something in opposition to the protagonist
· Usually seen as a bad person/force or villain
c. Minor character
· Often provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
· Character who is a contrast or opposite to the protagonist
· Character who emphasizes or highlights the traits of the protagonist
d. Characterization - The choices an author makes to reveal a character’s personality, such as appearance, actions, dialogue, and motivations.
Characters are described as being round or flat.
a. Round Character:
· Well-developed
· Has many traits, both good and bad
· Not easily defined because we know many details about the character
· Realistic and life-like
· Most major characters are round
· "The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way.
b. Flat character:
· Not well-developed
· Does not have many traits
· Easily defined in a single sentence because we know little about the
character
· Sometimes stereotyped
· Most minor characters are flat
Character change:
a. Dynamic characters are rounded characters that change.
· Undergoes an important change in personality in the story
· Comes to some sort of realization that permanently changes the
· character
· A change occurs within the character because of the events of the story
· The protagonist is usually dynamic, but not always
b. Static (stock) characters are round or flat characters that do not change during the story.
· Remains the same throughout the story
· Although something may happen to the character, it does not cause the
· character to change
· Minor characters are usually static
Allegory - narrative form in which the characters are representative of some larger humanistic trait (i.e. greed, vanity, or bravery) and attempt to convey some larger lesson or meaning to life. Although allegory was originally and traditionally character based, modern allegories tend to parallel story and theme.
· William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily- the decline of the Old South
· Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- man’s struggle to contain his inner primal instincts
· District 9- South African Apartheid
· X Men- the evils of prejudice
· Harry Potter- the dangers of seeking “racial purity”
2. Plot
According to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary, a plot means “ the story of a film, book, play, etc”. Plot is the order in which things move and happen in a story. the plot is the arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story. We can say that, the story have good chronological order only if the story relates events in the order in which they happened. Meanwhile, if the story moves back in time, it was called as Flashback. In a literary work, whether it is short story, novel, or drama conflict occur when the protagonist was starting to have a problem or struggling against an antagonist. The pattern of action are:
a. Foreshadowing is when the writer clues the reader in to something that will eventually occur in the story; it may be explicit (obvious) or implied (disguised). According to , eHow Contributor “Foreshadowing is a literary tool filmmakers adapt to provide early clues about where the plot is headed. It is a storytelling technique that, when used skillfully, gets viewers involved and thinking about the plot unfolding before them because they are picking up hints about what may soon happen.”
b. Suspense - The tension that the author uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown
c. Conflict - Struggle between opposing forces. Conflict/Plot may be internal or external and is best seen in (1) Man in conflict with another Man: (2) Man in conflict in Nature; (3) Man in conflict with self.
d. Exposition - Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
e. Rising Action - The process the story follows as it builds to its main conflict
f. Crisis - A significant turning point in the story that determines how it must end
g. Resolution/Denouement - The way the story turns out.
Types of plots
a. Progressive plots: have a central climax followed by denouement.
b. Episodical plots: have one incident or short episode linked to another by a common character or unifying theme (maybe through chapters). Used by authors to explore character personalities, the nature of their existence, and the flavor of a certain time period.
Structure (fiction) - The way that the writer arranges the plot of a story.
3. Setting
What is meant by setting is “ the time and the place in which the action of a book, film, play, etc. Happen”. The author will probably develop their idea in order to create a good literary work. Of course in this process of writing, the author will seriously found the suitable setting for their story. The setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters. There are six kind of setting:
a. Backdrop setting is when the setting is unimportant for the story and the story could take place in any setting. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne is an example of a story in which could happen in any setting.
b. Integral setting is when the action, character, or theme are influenced by the time and place, setting. Controlling setting controls characters. If you confine a character to a certain setting it defines the character. Characters, given these circumstances, in this time and place, behave in this way.
c. Functions of setting: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare creates a setting of Puritanical austerity: hand-rubbed copper, indicating hard work, the heavy fortress-like door, the dim little mirror, the severe wooden bench, the unpainted Meeting House, the whipping post, the pillory, and the stocks. The tasks of a typical day performed by Kit: mixing soap with a stick, the lye fumes stinging her eyes, tiring muscles, with one of the easiest tasks: making corn pudding, which keeps her over a smoky fire with burning and watering eyes. A frightening and uncompromising environment compared to her carefree Barbados upbringing.
d. Setting as antagonist: Characters must resolve conflict created by the setting:.
e. Setting that illuminates character: The confining setting of the attic in Anne Frank and Flowers in the Attic help the characters find themselves and grow as individuals.
f. Setting as symbolism: a symbol is a person, place, object, situation, or action which operates on two levels of meaning, the literal and the figurative, or suggestive. Children will understand only obvious symbols. Forest: unknown; garden: natural beauty; sunlight: hope, goodness; darkness: evil, despair. A grouping of symbols may create an image called an allegory. The Narnia books by C. S. Lewis are allegories.
4. Theme
A theme is the main point of a story. The theme is an idea, that convey what will happen in that literary works, who is an actor, how is the condition of that actor, what will be a problems in that literary works, how to solved it, etc. It can be said that theme is all of the thing that dealt with the story from the beginning to end. The idea of theme usually came from human real life or fiction. Without a theme, an author or writer cannot create or arrange good literary works. According to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary, “a theme is the main subject of a talk, book, film, etc”. It can be said that the theme is the idea of the author that developed into a story. There are 3 kinds of theme:
a. Explicit theme is when the writer states the theme openly and clearly. Primary explicit themes are common in children's literature, as the author wants to be sure the reader finds it.
b. Implicit themes are implied themes. If two such unlikely animals as a spider and pig can be friends, then so can we. Even a Tempelton can be a friend to a degree. Friendship is giving of ones self, as Wilbur did for the egg sac and devotion to the babies. Best friends can do no wrong. Friendship is reciprocal.
c. Multiple and secondary themes: Since a story speaks to us on our own individual level of varying experiences, many individual themes will be obtained from a good piece of literature. Charlotte's Web secondary themes could include: People don't give credit where credit is due, Youth and innocence have a unique value, Be what you are, There is beauty in all things, Nature is a miracle, Life is continuous.
5. Point of view
Point of view is determined by the authors' descriptions of characters, setting, and events told to the reader throughout the story. They are:
a. Narrator - The person telling the story who may or may not be a character in the story.
b. First-person - Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
c. Second person - Narrator addresses the reader directly as though she is part of the story. (i.e. “You walk into your bedroom. You see clutter everywhere and…”)
d. Third Person (Objective) - Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character's perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
e. Omniscient - All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator knows what each character is thinking and feeling, not just what they are doing throughout the story. This type of narrator usually jumps around within the text, following one character for a few pages or chapters, and then switching to another character for a few pages, chapters, etc. Omniscient narrators also sometimes step out of a particular character’s mind to evaluate him or her in some meaningful way.
6. Style
Style is how the author says something, the choice of words and the use of language, sentence construction, imagery not what the author says. It adds significance and impact to the author's writing. In literary works, exposition is the narrator or the third person passages who provide background information to explain story events. The choice of words and the use of language could be seen from the dialogue between characters. Meanwhile, vocabulary words that used in literary works are connotation and denotation. Connotation is the associative or emotional meaning of a word. Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word. This two kinds of words are combined to add meaning.
Sentence structure
Literary works is created by the author in many purposes. It used imagery words to create mental sensory impressions (sights, sounds, textures, smells, and tastes). It creates setting, establishes mood, or describes characters. Some terms of sentence structure that used in literary works:
a. Figurative language- the use of words to express meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words themselves
· Metaphor - contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme without using like or as “You are the sunshine of my life”
· Simile - contrasting to seemingly unalike things to enhance the meaning of a situation or theme using like or as
“What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun”
· Hyperbole- exaggeration
“I have a million things to do today”
· Personification - giving non-human objects human characteristics
“America has thrown her hat into the ring, and will be joining forces with the British”
b. Figure of speech is an expression used in a non literal context to add intensity of meaning.
c. Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole.
d. Allusion is a figure of speech that refers to something in our common understanding, our past or our literature. Allusion is difficult for children since it relies on background information which they often lack.
e. Symbol is a person, object, situation, or action that operates on two levels of meaning, the literal and the figurative or suggestive. Dove: peace, flag: nationality of a country, handshake or gift: friendship.
f. Puns or wordplay
Foot - grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables used in line or poem
· Iamb - unstressed syllable followed by stressed
o Made famous by the Shakespearian sonnet, closest to the natural rhythm of human speech
§ How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
· Spondee - stressed stressed
o Used to add emphasis and break up monotonous rhythm
§ Blood boil, mind-meld, well- loved
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