CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS LITERATURE?

1.1. Introduction
When talking literature or literary works such as a short story or
novel, people in general usually assume the works identical with
‘imagination’ or an imaginative work. If it is not imaginative it is not
included and named as literature. Due to being imaginative, literature is
then assumed to be useless, rubbish, and wasting time to deal with it.
When talking science of literature, most people stereotypically view that
literature is identical with feeling or emotion; there is no rationality and
logics at all within it. As a result, the science of literature or anything
related to it is more inferior than other sciences or fields of study. Besides,
when talking literature, many ‘educated’ people strangely view literature as
a field of study that has no contribution at all to the study and mastery of
English or teaching of English. Literature as a subject should be, therefore,
excluded from a curriculum of English education program.

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 These assumptions are totally wrong. Those who do not know
literature will assume it so. In fact, literature is an ‘aesthetic object’ not
merely as an ‘artifact’ which most of people view. Literature is dealing with
the world of human beings. Literature is proposing culture. Literature is
portraying the human beings’ civilization. Robert Spiller (1974), therefore,
says literature is a portrait and record of certain nation’s experiences. Due
to its large scope, literature of course deals with thoughts, rationality,
logics, vision, mission, principles of life, besides applying the emotion and
imagination. Producing a literary work needs genius or creativity, and to
understand and appreciate it someone must have all potentials or
potencies, either rationality or emotion, and either repertoire or wisdom.
Besides, literature is always interconnected with language. Both
cannot be separated. Due to being very close to language, literature can
be one of the ways to study and master language. And if it becomes a way
to master language, literature will certainly be a breakthrough. This is
because literature does not merely offer the mastery of language in sense
of ‘correct-incorrectness’ upon the language use – as it is measured
through grammar. More importantly, it also offers the mastery of the
language in context of the ‘appropriate-inappropriateness’ in which
sensitivity of language is definitely sharpened. In other words, through
studying literature, readers do not only enrich their vocabularies, catch up
the real expressions and exposures of natives in communicating certain
language, but they will also open up their horizons or views about certain
people’s ways of life, ways of thinking, traditions, habits, values, attitude,
and knowledge. Moreover, they will also sense with their emotion how the
performances of one group of people’s life and civilization are truly

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experienced by which the readers can subconsciously sharpen their
mental eyes. Therefore, those assumptions mentioned above are, once
again, is definitely misleading; and, to me, people who say them should be
really enlightened in terms of enlarging their knowledge.
To know literature and to eliminate such misleading assumptions,
this Chapter takes a very significant role. It is said so because this Chapter
tries to uncover what literature is. Here, it discusses some general notions,
basic concepts, and definitions of literature in several theoretical
perspectives, such as formalistic, mimetic, expressive, and affective ones.
This Chapter serves like a ‘front gate’ to know what literature is. It is hoped
at the end the readers may conclude that literature is a science or a field of
study that is feasible to acknowledge; it cannot be equalized to other fields
of study.

1.2. The General Notions on Literature

Anyone who has read a major anthology of literature will discover
that a number of the materials within it are not imaginative. Literature does
not talk about fantasies, but usually deals with anything that is very close
to our life. Dealing with anything close to real life, literature is a common
thing in our life. Literature is even the life itself since it deals with all
aspects of human beings’ activities, any kinds of phenomena in the
universe, series of horizons and knowledge owned by the human beings,
and even any symptoms or rhemes being beyond the human beings’ lives.
These all happen due to the power of human beings’ thoughts, feelings,
and imagination, which are often theoretically termed ‘fictionality’, namely
the sharpness of thoughts, the bunch of knowledge, and the waves of

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imagination.
It is therefore believed that all human beings, certainly the ones
who are sane and normal, have already been intermingling with literature,
or anything related to it. The problem is that people have not been aware
for that kind of stuffs or those phenomena. When someone retells one
incident happened to his or her friend, he has come into the world of
literature. When we express our excitement to our beloved darlings using
beautiful languages, we actually have intermingled with literature. When
we are even angry with someone, the expression of our anger can be
assumed as literature or an expression of literature. It is more convincing
to be that one when it is presented through a written form and put it as a
part of a story. So, literature is, again, the life itself. It is particularly the
language of the life. It truly comes from, by, and for the human beings,
their lives, and their civilization.
Those things, interestingly, can come into being due to the language.
Language is everything for literature. It simply serves as a medium for it. It
means that it is the language that can bring anything to exist. It is the
language that stimulates the aesthetic effect to the readers. It is the
language that makes the writing named “literature” in expressing the depth
of philosophy, ideology, message, and values from its author. It is the
language that makes the work to be like a beautiful painting or a
harmonious musical symphony. In short, it is the language that makes a
work to be called ‘literary work’ or ‘literature’ so that it can affect and evoke
readers. It is really true that a literary work exists due to a language
(Nuriadi, 2014). That is why, considering how important the language is for

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literature, no wonder if Robert Frost defines literature as ‘performance in
words’ (Barnet, at al., 1963).
Due to the language, a literary work can appear as an art, or
precisely as a work of art. The language in this sense takes a role as a
vehicle for a writer or an author in presenting the ideas or feelings, or
visions (in artistic level) and for a reader in absorbing and digging out
those ideas or messages appeared in the literary work (in aesthetic level).
It is, therefore, a literary work is called as a “creative work” (Castle, 2007).
He said (2007: 6) “literature employs a special form of language, more
provocative and connotative than that used in other forms of writings; in
this sense, literature is ‘fine’ or creative writing, no matter what the content
is”. Due to this sense, a literary work or work of art serves as a medium to
express the truth or truths that are believed by its author. It even can
become ‘the lamp’ which guides and helps open the audience’ eyes in
reading, understanding, and realizing the reality portrayed in a literary
work. At this moment, aware or not, a literary work has taken a significant
role for humans.
Considering Robert Frost’s definition on literature above, literature
is not clearly dichotomized yet whether a literary work should be
expressed using a spoken language or a written one. It even can be
assumed that literature, in sense of language use, can be in the two forms,
namely: spoken or oral literature and written one. And it is true nowadays
that literature does not only cover the one that is written but also the
spoken one. However, regardless of that fact, there are still a number of
experts saying that literature is the one that is written. For example,
Hornby (1974: 496) says literature is: “(1) (the writing or the study of)

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books, etc. valued as work of arts (drama, fiction, essays, poetry, and
biography) contrasted with technical books and journalism; (2) all the
writings of a country or period, books dealing with a special subject”. The
two concepts cover any works that are written.
The word ‘literature’ is coming from the Latin word that is ‘litteratura’
meaning that it is form or piece of writing. This fact really strengthens the
idea that a ‘written’ work can only be called as literature or literary work; if
not written, it is not a literary work. The word ‘literature’ is said in
Indonesian language as ‘sastra’ or ‘kesusasteraan’. The word ‘sastra’,
according to Teeuw (via Ratna, 2007: 4), interestingly does not come from
the Indonesian term or Malayan (mother of Indonesian language) term, but
it comes from Sanskrit language that is ‘sas’ and ‘tra’. The first part means
“to instruct, to teach, or to direct”, whereas the second one means
‘medium or tool’. So, “sastra” has a complete lexical meaning as “a writing
serving as a tool or medium for teaching or instruction”. It can be inferred
that any writings that function or are dedicated to give an instruction or
direction or teaching can be definitely called as literature. However, this
concept has now been enlarged. It is not only functioning as a form of
direction on instruction as what we commonly find in manual books, for
example, but also providing readers with sense of pleasure and fantasy as
often found in ‘popular’ fictions. Moreover, in western countries, literature
is also said ‘belles-letters’ which means any kind of writings which are
composed in refined and beautiful language. In Indonesia, the term
‘belles–letters’ is equal to ‘susastra’, confirming that literature should use
the beautiful and refined language as an expression of one’s deep
emotion. The prefix ‘su’ in the word ‘susastra’ confirms that a literary

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writing is written in beautiful language. However, in fact, the concept of
literature is now evolving. It means that literature is not only enclosing the
works in the form of ‘written’ or ‘printed’ writings but also the ones which
are in oral or spoken expressions. This last work is known in Germany as
‘Wortkunst’ or in Russia as ‘Slovesnost’ (Wellek and Warren, 1993: 14).
Therefore, literature is not only in novel, short story, or poems which are in
written forms and whose authors are clearly known, but it also encloses
the works which are often expressed orally like folklores or folktales,
riddles, charms, and so on, which are all produced and developed orally
(Endraswara, 2009: 31).
At present time, the scope of literature has been undeniably
developing. It is no longer emphasized on whether or not it is in written or
spoken forms. Also, it does not only focus on the conventional notions
saying that literature should be imaginative and use beautiful and refined
language. However, literature has now covered those works either written
or spoken works, either imaginative or unimaginative works, either using
beautiful language or ordinary language, either using verbal language or
nonverbal or visual language. Yes, it covers a very large scope. Literature
acknowledges nonfictional works like speech, essay, biography, sermon,
letter, critique, to be forms of literary works. Even, literature has included
comics and films as parts of it. This is proved by the fact that there have
been a number of studies found in certain colleges focusing on those kinds
of works. So, literature has undoubtedly broken up the conventional
constraint on literature. Nobody can avoid this fact, though.
This is not a surprise if it is looked at several considerations or
angles. Firstly, Eagleton (1996) says that it is very tricky if the notion of

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literature is only limited on whether or not it should be imaginative or
fictional. In England, this concept has been left since the sixteenth century,
therefore it has been no surprise if people conduct their study on sermon,
essay, speech, letter, journal, and so on. The imagination or fictionality,
according to Eagleton, does not only emerge when writing fictional works
but also happen when writing news or factual works. Secondly, Castle
(2007) says that literature should be viewed as a creative work. The word
‘creative’ is the key word here. Due to being creative, the forms of literary
works are then not only covering those fictional, imaginative, beautiful, and
written works, but more than those forms. In other words, as long as one
work is a form of someone’s creativity and it is valued as a work of art, it
may be claimed as a real literary work. Comics and films are included in
this case. Thirdly, Adi (2008, 2011) says that any creative literary work,
including films, serves as an expression of people’s awareness and,
therefore, as a product of culture. This is because each work, aware or
not, is always shadowed by the Zeit Geist and trend of certain era when it
is born and the collective consciousness of certain society where its author
lives. Therefore, it can undoubtedly be a portrait and record of certain
nation’s civilization. With regard to this matter, Adi finally views a work of
visual art, especially film, to become a new genre in literature so called
‘popular fiction’ (fiksi populer) (Adi, 2011: 4).
Furthermore, there are two categories of literature or literary works,
namely: high literature and low literature. The first is sometimes called as
‘canon’ or ‘masterpiece’ – the works that can be said as “model, standard,
classic, gem, showpiece, masterwork, magnum opus” (Laird, 2003: 263),
while the second is sometimes called as ‘popular literature’ since its target

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is to get a huge attention from mass despite in a temporary term. In fact,
the works are said ‘high literature’ or ‘masterpiece’ because of two criteria,
at least. The first is because the literary works have been testified by time
and space. They have existed through borderless time and space.
Although they were written in four or five centuries before and were written
in England or America, they have still existed up to the present time as the
compulsory materials in studying English literature found out all over the
world. The second is because they contain the inspiring and lead-to-think
contents which can be accepted by all readers, regardless of different
races, cultures, ethnic groups, and places. The masterpieces, therefore,
can also be called as ‘canons’ and included into ‘high literature’, not ‘low or
popular literature’. The low literature does not fulfill the two criteria above,
besides not giving novelty, originality, and not parts of their author’s deep
interpretations towards life (Susanto, 2008). In compliance with the length
of time as a criterion of one work to be called a masterpiece, Castle says
as follows:

For many readers, literature is that which has stood the test of time.
But this criterion is mystifying, for while it suggests an objective
temporal process, the ‘test of time’ really amounts to a long
historical process of selection and exclusion by cultural elites
(publishers, professors, editors, agents) who create CANONS of
literature (2007: 7).

In short, to underline some notions on literature briefly mentioned

above, there are actually several key words why literature is categorized

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into a work of art, namely: aesthetics, creativity, form of genius, and
emotive utterance. As a matter of fact, all kinds and forms of arts are in the
frame of these basic ideas. Firstly, the work is aesthetic because it brings
about a sense of beauty either through its form or through its content. In
the form, literature uses language which is commonly performed poetically
especially in poetry. Due to being poetic, the expression of literature is
always noticeable for its audience. The poetic sense felt by its audience is
then viewed literature as an artistic work. Secondly, literature is viewed as
a creative work because it is truly as a result of creativity; or it is created
only by one person. It is very personal, meaning that, as said above, it is
something coming from the deep side of someone, personally. In other
words, it exists because of the power of creativity, like spirit and passion
which comes from the inner side of the author, drives the author to create
and write a work. Thirdly, in relation to the second, literature is called as a
form of genius because literature is not merely produced by a made-up
process as in daydreaming. No, it is not. Literature as a work of art is born
due to an author’s power of intelligence where imagination, knowledge,
and logics are working together in producing any story and facts in the
work. And, fourthly, literature is called as an emotive utterance. ‘Emotive’
refers to a state of emotion, and it lingers in the deep side of human’s
feeling. Whenever literature is able to express or utter an author’s emotion,
vision, and principle honestly, it indicates that literature has already fulfilled
the sense of emotive-ness. ‘Honestly” in this case plays as the key word
since it shows the way how it is figured out, besides the content that there
is no falsehood and pretense, but the true sense of genuineness of an
author.

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1.3. The Concepts of Literature in Several Theoretical Perspectives
There are four theoretical perspectives that are offered here to
break down the definitions and features of literature or literary work as a
work of art. This explanation may lead the readers to see where literature
positions in human beings’ lives and to what extent it can take a role in
progressing their lives and civilization when looking at it in a general
constraint. The four perspectives are the formalistic, mimetic, expressive,
and affective ones.

1.3.1. Literature in Formalistic Perspective

Let us, first of all, understand the meaning of ‘formalistic’ here. The
term refers to the fact how literature or literary works are performed or
presented visually. The fact is that a literary work is always presented by
language. Therefore, the term in fact refers to the uses of language. In
other words, the definition of literature is framed in the sense of the
language uses as the main tool of literature. It is the language serving as
the main object in evaluating certain literary work so that it can be named
as a work of art.
Terry Eagleton (1996:1-2) states that the dichotomic definition on
literature set on the sense of fictionality or factuality is very tricky if it
cannot be said as an applicable one. He says so because both fictional
and factual aspects are always present in any kinds of writing. It is not only
in a short story or novel the aspect of fictionality is existing and neglecting
the factuality. The same is true that it is not only in a scientific book or
news report the aspect of factuality is totally existing and neglecting the
sense of fictionality. Both are existing in those works to be called fictions

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or to be called scientific works. It is that percentage of the existence of
both aspects that differs one work from another. When it is in a scientific
writing the sense of fictionality is less, whereas when it is in a fictional
writing the aspect of factuality is looked to be very less and blurred out.
This really occurs due to the fact that the factuality or the factual
information is mixed with the author’s imagination and creativity
(fictionality). Therefore, he suggests that the definition of literature should
be put in a formalistic view by saying: “Perhaps literature is definable not
according to whether it is fictional or ‘imaginative’, but because it uses
language in peculiar ways” (Eagleton, 1996: 2).

Terry Eagleton

From Eagleton’s definition, it is clearly seen that it is the language

uses which determines one writing can be named or included as a literary
work or work of art. He says so because literature transforms and
intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday
speech. His idea is underlined from Roman Jakobson’s idea saying that

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literature is kind of writing which represents an organized violence
committed on an ordinary speech. The transformation and intensification
of the ordinary speech in a work of art results in the performance of poetic
image and sense within it (Fokkema and Kunne-Ibsch, 1977: 15).
The concept of literature in the formalistic perspective was
pioneered by the Russian Formalists experts in 1920s figured by Roman
Jakobson, Victor Shklovsky, Osip Brik, Yury Tynyanov, Boris Eichenbaum
and Boris Tomashevsky. The main concept is focused on the uses of the
language which is known as ‘literaturnost’ or the literariness. This happens
because the language has series of linguistic devices which are then
applied in the language of literature so that they make literary or poetic
language. In other words, the Formalists started out by seeing the literary
work as a more or less arbitrary assemblage of ‘devices’, and only later
came to see these devices as interrelated elements or ‘functions’ within a
total textual system. Those devices are, for example, sound, imagery,
rhythm, syntax, metre, rhyme, narrative techniques, figurative languages,
and so on (Eagleton, 1993: 3). These are applied in the literary work so
that the language of the work becomes estranging or defamiliarizing. To
understand the words or expressions of the work needs more times. It
means that a reader cannot automatically understand what the idea or
message of the expression really means and refers to. He or she is
sometimes triggered to consult some references. This moment is then
mentioned by the Formalists as a term ‘de-automatization’.
To make it clearer, let us discuss it by looking at the following

example:

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 O rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

The poem is entitled “The Sick Rose”, written by William Blake, a

metaphysical poet of England. Now, looking at the poem in a glance, the
words used are all very familiar. They are all common words found in
everyday speech. It means that all people of English, or the people who
can speak English, can easily understand the meaning of each word.
Everybody knows, for instance, what ‘rose’ is, or what ‘worm’ is. However,
the two words seem to be unfamiliar and a bit difficult to be understood. In
this sense the words have become estranged or defamiliarized. The words
are serving as ‘metaphors’ or ‘symbols’ for something out of them. The
rose can be a metaphor or a symbol for ‘girl’ and worm can be ‘boy’. Due
to this fact, the poem then becomes literary. Using metaphoric or figurative
languages leads it to be definitely literary. In this sense, the estrangement
has already occurred. Then to understand the whole meaning of the poem,
it needs more times for the readers to interpret it first. They even need to
find references to understand the poem, including studying the
background of the author’s life. This is a situation of de-automatization.

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 1.3.2. Literature in Mimetic Perspective
If formalistic theory emphasizes its concept on the uses of language
as ‘a trunk’ to say a writing as a literary work, or a work of art, the mimetic
theory is much different from it. This perspective does not care about the
uses of language. It goes more deeply than what the first one really
concerns. In other words, if literature is divided into two sides, namely: the
Form and the Content, so the mimetic theory sees a literature in sense of
the Content instead of the Form of literature, as the formalistic experts had
done before.
The word ‘mimetic’ is an adjective form of the word ‘mimesis’. It
means ‘imitation’. So, the mimetic perspective sees that a literary work is
in fact an imitation of the universe. It is an imitation of reality. It is the
imitation of the human beings’ lives and activities in real world (Abrams,
1976; Barnet, et al., 1963). The concept of the ‘imitation’ follows the
Western norm on art saying “ut nature poiesis”; meaning that a work art
should follow and depend on nature” (Teeuw, 2003: 184), therefore the
term can be enlarged into the word ‘copy’. However, the concept of that
word is not literally meant as what a zerox machine works out or as what a
camera does in making a photograph. ‘Imitating’ or ‘copying’ here means
that a literary work only follows the facts of reality but being mixed and
made up by its author’s creativity and imagination. In this sense, the
imitation tends to be ‘reflection’ or ‘representation’ of the reality, not only
the ‘copy’ as it is understood literally.
This concept of literature is firstly proposed by Plato and Aristotle.
In other words, the concept is actually the oldest one, when looked at the
time of existence. It is all known that both figures appeared before century

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or before the civilization of Europe was well recorded and written. The
theory deals with art in general, not specifically deals with literature. Due to
literature assumed as an art, the theory applies here. Plato specifically
said that a literary work is a copy of reality and it is directly transferred by
the author on a work of art (literary work) in accordance with its copy in the
author’s mind. In this case, it serves as “a copy of the copy”. It means that
a literary work is the imitation or the copy of what and how the reality in the
authors’ minds are, which in fact the reality in the minds is actually a
portrait of the reality. The word ‘mimesis’ (imitatio) is the antonym of the
word ‘diegesis’ (creatio). It means that if a work of art is an imitation of
reality or the universe (in sense of mimesis), diegesis, in contrast, refers to
the one that is fully based on imagination and creativity per se.

Plato Aristotle

The Plato’s concept is then revised or improved by his pupil,

Aristotle. According to the second figure, a literary work is not a copy as it
is, but in the process of copying in the mind or in the mental side of the
author, it involves the creativity and imagination of the author. It means

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that the reality copied is no more genuine or original, but it is a mixture
between the facts in reality and the author’s imagination and creativity.
The presence of creativity and imagination then leads the work to be a
form or art, since art is identical with both terms. Moreover, due to the
presence of both imagination and creativity, a work of art is actually a
reflection and a representation of the reality, no longer a copy. It is the
author who presents the reality again, of course, based on his or her
understanding. Triggered by this situation, a work of art is then containing
literary facts which can be intertaining and useful to readers. These two
effects will be initiated with the presence of ‘catharsis’ (a feeling of
purification), as termed by Aristotle (Teeuw, 2003: 182) in the hearts of
audience. When it happens works of art, especially masterpieces, can be
really useful for human beings.
To prove how this concept works out, let us have a look at a work of
art concretely. Put an example of an American best-selling novel in the
midst of the nineteenth century, entitling Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This novel
was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist figure in that era.
She wrote the novel around 1850s and was fully inspired by the reality
happened in America at that time, namely: the slavery or the enslavement
was a common phenomenon throughout the country. It was even serving
as a social, economical and political institution especially happened in the
states in Southern America. It even served as the real economic backbone
of the American people’s lives (Blair, et al., 1971).
In this context, Stowe, being an abolitionist or the one who was
really opposed the the slavery, wrote the novel. She used the facts of
slavery or how the slavery was conducted in her surroundings to be her

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main inspiration and sources of her narrative story. She did not copy the
reality as what she had been seeing and experiencing but she actually
used her imagination and creativity as well. She made up the characters
like Uncle Tom, George, Eliza, and the Quakers. Those were not found in
the reality. Nevertheless, those characters were inspired by the real facts.
In this sense, she had used reality, imagination, and creativity in
accomplishing her novel. In other words, Stowe did not only imitate the
reality but also represented the reality based on her view and
understanding being mixed with her creativity and imagination. This is how
the concept of mimesis really works. The impact of her writing or novel’s
publication is that Uncle Tom’s Cabin became the best selling in that era
and led the gowth of antislavery sentiment. This novel even led to the
occurrence of Civil War.

1.3.3. Literature in Expressive Perspective

The word ‘express’ seems to be different from the words ‘say’,
‘state’ or ‘tell’, although all of them refer to an activity of performing or
showing one’s attitude or idea and feeling explicitly through verbal
language. The words ‘express’ refers to the activity which is only and
specifically related to the one coming from one’s feeling or heart, whereas
the words ‘say’, ‘state’ or ‘tell’ refer to that activity in both the one coming
from the thought (mind) or from the feeling. In other words, from the name
of the theory, ‘expressive theory’, it may be directly assumed that it deals
closely with feeling, heart, emotion, or conscience. This theory has
appeared since Ancient Greece in which Dyonisius Cassius Longinus, one
of the most prominent figures, proposed it as a way to understand literary

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works. In other words, the expressive theory is very old.
This theory defines literature as an expression of the author’s
emotion or conscience. A literary work exists due to the drives coming
from the author’s heart. Whatever the heart says is shown in the work of
art and it is believed that is a truth. This is because emotion or conscience
is a mental side which contains awareness, honesty, and truth. William
Wordsworth, an English Romanticist poet, once defined literature as a
spontaneous expression of the author’s feeling. He concretely said “Poetry
[Literature] as a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Barnet, et al.,
1963; and Luxemburg et al, 1984). It means that it is not literature if it does
not come from an author’s feeling since it becomes the source of material
to be told about by that work. Also, expressions of the feeling should take
place spontaneously since the ‘spontaneous’ way can show ‘a genuine
and real truth’ and avoid an engineering or intervention from rationality or
thought that may degrade or decrease it.

William Wordsworth

Therefore, through this perspective, a literary work is believed a

representation of the author’s real figure, feeling, vision, and attitude. It

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means whatever the work presents becomes a real portrait of its author.
Besides, the expressive theory postulates that literature is a part of an
author’s way of thinking or awareness empowered by the emotion or
conscience which is then concretized through a verbal language as its
medium. From this way, once again, the literary work proposes a truth
although it sounds very relative and subjective, since it totally comes from
the author. It is said ‘truth’ because most of the ideas presented are the
result of the author’s reflection and contemplation upon the real life. In this
regard, we need to look at it positively, regardless of its subjectivity or
relativity, that the truth shown by the literary work is an alternative way to
understand our life and our world. This notion is from Geroge Lukacs, a
Marxist literary expert, saying that literature takes a role as an effective
medium to understand or realize what and how the reality really goes on
(Luxemburg, et al. 1984). This condition is also definitely applied in
expressive perspective where literature is a way to see the truth which is
already canonized by its author. He only plays as “a messenger” of the
truth to the readers. Having been being illuminated or enlightened,
therefore, he writes a literary work for society in accordance with the
illumination or enlightenment he has got.
To prove how this theoretical perspective is applied in a real work,
let us take a look at a thick novel entitled Tuan Guru written by Salman
Faris, a writer from Lombok island. This novel was firstly published in 2007
in Yogyakarta and it was fully inspired by any social and cultural facts with
regard to a spiritual Islamic leader named ‘Tuan Guru’. The writer was
born in Sakra, East Lombok. In his childhood until boyhood, he was
educated in Pesantren (an Islamic boarding school) somewhere in east

20 Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction

Lombok. It is a common phenomenon in Lombok that each Islamic
boarding school is led, headed, and owned by a Tuan Guru. In that time
he got along intensively with Tuan Guru and how people coped with and
acted when getting along with the figure. Through his personal
experiences, Salman Faris then wrote the novel. Looking at any facts of
Tuan Guru in a negative side, he protested Tuan Guru as a figure who
tended to be hygemonic. He showed his critical thoughts about the figure.
He even criticized and implicitly suggested that this social cultural
condition be reformed. Of course, he dared to say so because he once
experienced those facts in his childhood or boyhood. Therefore, it is
already clear enough then how the expressive theory applies. Once again,
the theory really focuses on correlation between literary facts in a work of
art and the emotional and biographical sides of an author since it serves
as ‘a real creation’ of the author.

1.3.4. Literature in Affective Perspective

Roman Jakobson views that a literary work is a form of
communication. In a communication process it always involves two sides;
that is, an addresser and addressee or an encoder and a decoder, where
they can reciprocally change their roles in terms of sharing information and
influencing one another. However, in sense of communicating through a
literary work, the mode of communication is in one-directive
communication not a reciprocal one. In spite of the fact, it does not mean
that such communication is unsuccessful and useless. Even, this mode of
communication can arouse a curiosity from addressees (readers) to know
further what and how the messages and content are expressed by an

Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction 21

author through his or her literary work. The work truly serves as a medium
of communication between an author as addresser and readers as
addressees. This is the schema drawn by Roman Jakobson:

CONTEXT
WRITER (ADDRESSER) --- MESSAGE --- READER (ADDRESSEE)
CODE

If we adopt the addresser’s viewpoint, we draw attention to the

writer and his or her ‘emotive’ or ‘expressive’ use of language; if we focus
on the ‘context’, we isolate the ‘referential’ use of language and invoke its
historical dimension at the point of ist production; if we are principally
interested in the addressee, we study the reader’s ‘reception’ of the
‘message’, hence introducing a different historical context (no longer the
moment of a text’s production but of its reproduction, and so on (Selden
and Widdowson, 1993: 4). In this regard, it seems to me that anything
presented by a literary work can be a source of study, analysis, and
appreciation. Literature can be seen from all of its sides; it is not only
dealing with the content as what people have commonly dealt with so far,
but also dealing with other sides and focuses. This may be done as long
as the side or focus to be analyzed really affects a reader. The initial
requirement is that such part or side has inspired or affected him or her.

22 Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction

 Roman Jakobson

Hence, by understanding a work of art as a medium of

communication, people can see more easily that the main objective of the
presence of the work is to share and to influence the the readers as
addressees of the work and its writer. Once the work can influence and or
attract the readers’ attention upon the content of the work, it means that
the work has already been successful. In terms of such success, the
notion what affective theory states is there, namely: the work of art ought
to arouse a particular emotion, or affect in the perceiver [addressee].
Tolstoi proposed the concept of literature in affective theory, as follows:

Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously

by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he
has lived through, and that others are infected by these feelings,
and experience them (Barnet, et al. 1963: 6).

In terms of influencing or affecting the readers, a work of art

concretely arouses a feeling of pleasure in the readers. Roland Barthes (in

Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction 23

Selden and Widdowson, 1993: 133) explores the concept of ‘Pleasure’
experienced by the readers when they are affected by a work of art
namely: (a) pleasure (with small p) and (b) bliss. Here is the schema
showing their interrelations:

Pleasure
/ \
‘pleasure’‘bliss’

Barthes explains that the meaning of ‘pleasure’ (small p) is a feeling being

affected like the one when someone is looking at a pornographic picture.
That pleasure is spontaneously appearing but it comes up temporarily. No
matter how long it is going on in his feeling, the point is that when such
kind of the feeling is existing, it means that the affection in sense of
‘pleasure’ has already existed as well. It is, once again, a temporary
affective feeling. Meanwhile, the meaning of ‘bliss’ is on the contradiction
of the first mode of feeling. It refers to the feeling which lingers very long in
the readers’ hearts and minds. It induces and evokes them, for example,
to be better people in facing any problems of life.
This is actually the main objective of the presence of the literay
work. It even insists to induce an emotional state that will subtlely lead and
inspire the readers to action. The affection in the mode of ‘bliss’ is mostly
provided by a masterpiece or high literature, in which there are values,
noble thoughts, moral messages, and trancendental teachings that can be
shown and lead the readers to think more about how their selfnesses are.
In other words, that work of art is illuminating and can be ‘a mirror’ for

24 Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction

readers. If this happens, a work of art is not only intertaining ( dulce) but
also useful for the human beings (utile). When looking at literature in the
sight of affective theory, literature clearly supports the essences and the
main goal of education for people.
The concrete proof of how someone is already affected after
reading a literary work is that, for example, I once heard honest comments
from several students of FKIP, University of Mataram, saying they wanted
to be Fachry after they read Ayat-Ayat Cinta or to be Khairul Azzam after
reading Ketika Cinta Bertasbih. These two novels were written by
Habiburrahman El-Shirezy and once became best-selling works in
Southeast Asia. The students said so because they had been affected by
the vivid and ideal depictions of both characters. The characters seem to
have already fulfilled the students’s ideal dreams as men. Moreover, one
girl suddenly met me and questioned where Suparman lived. Suparman is
one of the main characters I depicted in my novel entitled Merpati Kembar
di Lombok. She read the novel and was impressively affected by the
character of Suparman. She said that she wanted to meet him and wanted
him to be her husband if it is real. Again, this is a clear example of how a
work of art has influenced, affected, and evoked the readers.

1.4. Summary
Through the discussion of this Chapter, it can be seen that literature
is an art so a literary work is a ‘work of art’ like a painting, statute, or
graphic design in visual art. The main medium of literature is language.
Without language, it cannot exist. In spite of being art, it does not mean it
only deals with feeling, emotion, and imagination (called as fictionality), but

Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction 25

it also definitely gets along with creativity, genius, thought, rationality, and
or logics. They are all working together in accomplishing the work in order
to be enjoyed and inspired the readers. Besides, the word ‘literature’ is
coming from the Latin word ‘litteratura’ meaning a piece of writing. In this
context, the initial definition of literature is stranded on ‘written’ forms, not
spoken one, although nowadays the definition has been enlarged
enclosing the ‘spoken’ forms, so it is known as “oral literature”. Not only
that, literature has nowadays enclosed other categories such as creative
works and unimaginative works. Therefore, in this case, essay, speech,
biography, comics and films can be parts of literature.
It is totally wrong if literature is useless science and floppily
considered as an inferior science. Literature deals with the human culture
and the civilization. It is clearly seen from some theoretical perspectives
that literature can be benificial for human beings from many angles. That is
why, each perspective emphasizes its focuses on certain points. To
mention briefly, the formalistic perspective sees, following the Rusian
Formalists, a literary work as poetic aspect and that can be seen from the
language uses (using ‘peculiar ways’ of language) as it is commonly
shown by poems. The mimetic perspective confirms that works of art are
imitation, copy, reflection, and representation of human beings’ lives and
or reality. Therefore, literature can be a ‘mirror’ for readers to understand
what and how the life is. The expressive perspective views that a literary
wok serves as an expression of the author’s feeling or emotion. That
feeling is seen to be genuine and honest, so it shows truths coming from
the author. The last but not least, the affective perspective proposes that a
literary work can affect the readers. This happens because a literary work

26 Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction

is sort of communication medium from which it transfers the messages of
an author as encoder to readers. Due to being such medium, a literary
work then has functions in sense of dulce et utile; it is intertaining and
useful for human beings. Being ‘affective’ means being influenced or
evoked. Once it can achieve the sense of affectiveness, the work is
assumed good and already successful.

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30 Dr. Nuriadi S.S., M.Hum | Theory of Literature: An Introduction