CANTING BY ARSWENDO ATMOWILOTO: THE POTRAYAL OF JAVANESE PATRIARCHY AND WOMEN’S CHALLENGE TOWARDS THE PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan Listiarini Dwi Oktavia 112008058 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY SALATIGA 2012 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT This thesis contains no such material as has seen submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text. Copyright @2012. Listiarini Dwi Oktavia and Purwanti Kusumaningtyas, M.Hum. All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. Listiarini Dwi Oktavia: Listiarini 1 Canting by Arswendo Atmowiloto: the Potrayalof Javanese Patriarchy andWomen’s Challenge Towardsthe Patriarchal System Listiarini Dwi Oktavia Abstract Patriarchy is one of the phenomena that are found in the Javanese society, who believe and do the patriarchal practices. The inequality between men and women and oppression is the problem that women must face because of the idea of the men’s authority, and women should be subject to the authority of men. Canting, a novel written by Arswendo Atmowiloto, is one of very interesting novels which reflects the phenomena that happen in the society. It portrays how the patriarchal practices work in Javanese society and the effort from a woman character, Ni, to fight for her rights as the reaction to the oppression towards her. This study is aimed to analyze how the novel portrays Javanese patriarchy and how it challenges Javanese patriarchy through the characters in the novel. Feminist criticism is used to conduct this research and this novel is analyzed using characters analysis. The finding is that patriarchy is still a culture that is held by the Javanese society represented by the character Pak Bei. He becomes the head of the family and thus he rule over his entire family member, and has the power over his wife’s live to decide everything in her life. Bu Bei, is the victims of the patriarchal practices. Though, through the character Ni, it shows that within the oppression of the system, women can fight against the patriarchy, and struggle so that their lives are not driven by the men authority. Education becomes important factor that brings Ni to the point where she struggle and protest against the system, to open Ni’s mind to see the gender unfairness and redefining herself as an equal creature compares to men. Keywords: Javanese Patriarchy, Feminism, Patriarchal Challenge Introduction Patriarchy, as Knauss defined, is “a hierarchy authority that is controlled and dominated by males in which women is subordinated to the role of permanent minors” (1987). Patriarchal system as we know has been rooted in most of the culture in the world, including Javanese culture. Literature is a reflection of the society which can represent the condition of the society at the time it is written. According to Wellek and Warren, literature contains the life of the society, reflects the problems that happens in it and sometimes the Listiarini 2 writer gives solution to the problem (Semi, 1990). Then, we can see the reflection on how the patriarchal system works in the society through literature. Canting, a novel by Arsewondo Atmowiloto, is a literature work that reflects the life of a Javanese family and the patriarchal practices in the Javanese society. This novel narrates about the family life of Pak Bei, a priyayi, the functionary of the King, who married the daughter of his batik laborer. After years of marriage Bu Bei pregnant the sixth child, but the pregnancy is not expected and suspected as a result of an affair. After born, the child becomes different from her brothers and sisters. Ni, the child, wants to break the custom and challenges the culture of her family. The novel shows the Javanese hierarchal society. The hierarchy is not only shown between the high-status people (the bourgeois- priyayi) and the low-status people (batik laborer), but also the hierarchy between the men and women (in family). This novel leads to the issue of how the patriarchal system works in the Javanese culture. Though the novel setting is in the beginning of 1960, the issue of women subordination and the patriarchal system are still relevant to the Javanese society right now. As Brenber (1988) argues, though Java has gained achievement in industry, however, this achievement does not automatically give any contribution positively in the relation of men and women. Women are still in the lowest place in the hierarchal system of Javanese culture. As the feminist argued, women are defined by the men and they were confined into a ‘cage’ of ‘what they should and should not do’. They feel the oppression of the men over their life. Within a set of constraint, women actually strategize in dealing with them. They are actively or passively resist to the face of their oppression (Kandiyoti, 1988). The resistance varies from one to another. However, the resistances and challenges have been delivered by Listiarini 3 women, and it is worth to see how the woman character in this novel also challenges the patriarchy in Javanese society The objective of this study is to scrutinize how the novel portrays Javanese patriarchy through the character ‘Pak Bei’ and how the novel challenges Javanese patriarchy through the character ‘Ni’. Literature study based on feminist criticism is used in the research. Other relevant sources needed as an aid to analyze the data are also gathered. Using feminist point of view in this research, the novel will be analyzed using character analysis. The data will be taken from the dialogue between the characters, the narratives from the writer, the point of view of the other characters about the characters Ni and Pak Bei. Then the data will be analize to the see the patriarchal practices in the Javanese society and the struggle to challenge patriarchy. The aim of this study is to help students, especially English Department students, to gain a better understanding on the patriarchal practice and how the women strategize within the Javanese society. Understanding the patriarchal system and how it affects the women’s life, the students are expected to value and honor women, and not to make discrimination by gender. It is also aimed to open readers’ horizon that education is important, especially for women. Through education, women will gain broader knowledge that will open up their minds about who they are and the rights that they have. Thus, they will not accept the patriarchal system, but fights against it to gain their rights and equality in the system. As educators, it is hoped that English Department students will help women who do not have the chance to experience school to have education, so they will not live under the suppression of the patriarchal system. Listiarini 4 Theoretical Discussions 1. Feminism According to Humm, feminism is the definition incorporates both of doctrine of equal rights for women (the organized movement to attain women’s right) and ideology of social transformation aiming to create a world for women beyond simple equality (1992). Feminism argues that the roles of social life principles are defined by the men and women are subordinate under men control. Feminist movement has been delivered in many country. In Indonesia, though it is not as loud as in western countries, the movement is also present. According to Arivia (2006), the movement can be divided into four stages. At the first stage, the movement raised the issue of voting right and education for women. In this stage, the fight for voting right was not as strong as in the other countries. However, the fight for education has been started from the colonial era in 1912. The second stage raised the political issue and mass association to develop woman political and skill. In this stage, Indonesian women focused themselves in the issues of equality and asked the government to revised marriage constitutional, education rights, and women’s work condition. Woman association grew so fast, and Kongres Wanita Indonesia and Gerwani appeared in this era. The third stage, in the Orde Baru era, the goverment emerged the discourse of woman domestic duty. In this stage, the goverment decided the criterias of a good woman.Therefore, because of the discrimination, woman social organization grew very well and fought against the oppression. The fourth stage, in the reformation era, liberal movement emerges and fights against violence to women. 2. Patriarchy Patriarchal system is a system that we can find in almost all over the world. According to Bashin and Said Khan (1995), patriarchy is derived from patriach, which means the authority of father. In the relation with the social system, it is where the father has Listiarini 5 authority over all his family member, all wealth and economic resource, and make all decision. The social system should be under man’s power and woman is part of man’s belonging. The practice of patriarchy in Javanese society has some aspects, which start with the gender construction. The tradition and culture have constructed an ideal both for woman and man. The general concept of men and women, women are known to be gentle, beautiful, and emotional, while men are known to be strong, rational, valiant and courageous. From the construction of the society about characteristic of men and women above, the issue of hierarchy arises.