International Journal of Social Sciences Research Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015 Ch. Evy Tri Widyahening

LITERARY WORKS AS A REFLECTION AND INTERPRETATION OF SOCIO-CULTURAL OF SOCIETY CH. EVY TRI WIDYAHENING English Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Slamet Riyadi University, Surakarta-Central Java

Abstract At the length of history, human creativity spreads in every area which covers economic social, science and medical, information technology, political, transportation, and symbolic process in society. Belleslettres or literary works represent the form of art which through a process of symbolic and has tightly relation cultural socially at a certain society or nation. Belleslettres or literary works represent the symbol of verbal or non-verbal which has important roles as a means of idea link or society reflections at a certain period. The object which is used in belleslettres or literary works is about the reality of society’s social life, which tries to represent the event happened in a certain society in the form of imaginary language and dialogue with a view to comprehend the event of history of a certain nation or society according to the craftsmanship of the author. Belleslettres or literary works represent re-creating an event of history as according to the author’s knowledge and imagination. Belleslettres or literary works must be able to express the coherent picture about the idea or event happened in society. Thereby, belleslettres or literary works represent an intellectual reply to the problem of an era by using the reality of society’s life at a certain period as reflections. Belleslettres or literary works represent the picture of socio-cultural conditions in a certain society or a nation in a certain period, the author’s idea, and the reflection of history of a nation. Figures in the story represent the characteristics of human being who are existing in the society with grief, fate, and psychological development. By reading and enjoying belleslettres or literary works, we will be able to anticipate how a social class with the background of a certain cultural tradition can be formed in society. Keywords belleslettres, literary works, reflection, symbolic process, socio-cultural condition, interpreation

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International Journal of Social Sciences Research

Introduction Literature has emerged for centuries through the authors, playwrights, and poets, either are Indonesian, British or American. They have produced many literary works and their works have given impression in readers’ soul. By enjoying literary works which are written by the authors, readers or literature beneficiaries are not only able to extend their knowledge and visions but also they can know and understand more about the great literary works, the famous authors and their thoughts which can be seen from the works that have written. By reading and enjoying literary works, the reader or literature beneficiary will be able to comprehend the authors’ ideas, their feelings, as well as their opinion toward life, toward environment, toward the man nature, and toward God. The reader knows them through their experiences, observations, understanding, intelligences, vast reading with their solved and unsolved problems. Of course, every literary work that has been written by the authors from different countries will give different narrating style also. For example, American culture is very different from Indonesian culture therefore the readers are expected able to learn or absorbs their culture which is contained in literary works carefully since Indonesian culture is based on Pancasila. Therefore, before reading and enjoying literary works, the readers or literature beneficiaries should esteem their national culture firstly, they should have a deep feeling and motivation in the sense of belonging to it, and they should be self confidence and proud to their own culture. Of course, the reader and literature beneficiary will study and recognize the foreign culture through literary works which they enjoy. When they enjoy literary works, it is very important to filter and select all element or aspect of foreign culture which might possibly give harmful effect to them than give something good for their life. By enjoying literary works, the readers or literature beneficiaries do not only recognize the foreign culture and enjoys the story in it but also they can improve and develop their senses, their reasoning ability, their attitude toward others, their social and religious understanding, the values of life, as well as thinking process. So, they do not only enjoy literary works as an entertainment but also they will obtain valuable lessons about to be a useful person in this life in society. The readers or literature beneficiaries will become a mature and a wise person in society who can stand the problem in this life and they will give their contribution to the revelation of human values, so that they also become better persons. Through literary works, we can recognize and know about the culture and customs which is owned by a nation. The culture and the custom become the background of stories which are written by the authors. Literary works do not only give an entertainment to us but also give us knowledge about history, about a nation, about human characteristics, about the style of the authors, and others. In 42

Ch. Evy Tri Widyahening this paper, it will be discussed about the role of literary works as a reflection and interpretation of socio-cultural of society. Here, there are two major problems that make us still wondering. They are about how the role of literary works as a reflection of socio-cultural of soiciety is and how the role of literary works as an interpretation of socio-cultural of society is. Then, the aims of those problems are to know the role of literary works as a reflection of socio-cultural of society and to describe the role of literary works as an interpretation of socio-cultural of society. Theoretical Framework Literature is generally divided into three parts, those are prose, drama, and poetry. Prose uses imaginative languages in narrating stories and not in verses forms, the examples of prose are novels, short stories, and novellas. Drama represents one of literary works which its content is dialogue and it can be performed on a stage by actors and actress. Drama which is performed on a stage is included in an acting area or a theater area, as Harymawan (1988;6) stated that pementasan drama termasuk wilayah seni peran atau seni teater.. While poetry presents the art works (poems) of poets, which is in the forms of verses with rhythm, for example is ballads, epics, lyrical poetry, and others. All literary works such as prose, drama and poetry have the same purpose that is trying to express ideas, feelings and desires of the author or the playwrights or the poet to the reader or literature beneficiary with the story background or theme as according to a certain era, but they have different forms. Poetry, especially, is written in the form of verses and it uses figurative languages and dictions which sometimes every reader has different interpretation even his or her interpretation is different with the purpose of the poets. While prose and drama, although both literary works have different forms but they have similarity in describing things, such as in giving the picture of a nation’s culture, about human characteristics and attitudes, about good and bad, true and wrong, may and may not, and honest and insincere. In drama, especially, the content of drama script will be easier to be comprehended if the play is performed on a stage totally, an actor stands as according to the character, attitude and behavior which must be brought as the plot of the story. Drama itself is one of literature genre which is created or written to be performed on a stage. Because it is aimed to be performed then drama requires actors who are not only able to perform dialogue well but also they are able to play the characters and motion on stage. The term of drama does not only relate to drama script but also it relates to the something that can be seen and heard. As Barnet (2001:1) stated that drama is not simply the presentation of interesting characters or a matter of preaching interesting ideas, rather, it is the presentation of human beings engaged in action. The medium of drama is not 43

International Journal of Social Sciences Research words, but persons moving about on a stage using words. The essence of drama consists of three boards, two actors, and a passion – that is a place, where impersonators (two actors) engage in a conflict (passion). Aristotles (in Iwuchukwu, 2008:3) defined that drama is an imitation of an action. He connected drama to the motivation to imitate a real life, for example the jackstraws when one of children becomes ‘the father’ and another child becomes ‘the mother’. It means that the imitation of life becomes the part of real life itself. Human has desires to imitate others, situations, and events. So, in drama we can also see the culture of a certain era and its elements which is represented also when the drama performed. Further, Bertolt Brecht (in Iwuchukwu, 2008;3) emphasized that drama is not only as a real life imitation but also as a means to show the social conditions which is happened in society. Drama is not only stand as an entertainment but also as a means of political and social change. Method The location of the research is in the library of Slamet Riyadi University Surakarta and Language Laboratory of English Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Slamet Riyadi University Surakarta in academic year 2014 / 2015, started from November 2014 until December 2014. Type of The Study. This research is descriptive study and represents type of qualitative research. This research also represents library research, through references that support the study. According to Khotari (2004:2) descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purposes of descriptive research are description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In this descriptive study, the method that is used is descriptive method. Descriptive research is not only limited to collect and arrange the data, but also analyze and interpret the meaning of the data. Data source is (1) informant; (2) documents and archival; and (3) other sources. Informant is a lecturer, student and experts in literature. Document, archival, and other sources are elected which can complement this case study. Technique of collecting the data is documentation which tries to collect the data from books, written records, and internet sources. Then, all of the words and sentences are connected to the problems are taken. Technique of Analyzing. The Data uses interactive model of data analysis by Miles and Huberman (1992). This model of analysis includes (1) data collection, (2) data reduction, (3) data display, and (4) data conclusion or verification.

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Ch. Evy Tri Widyahening Result and Discussion The Role of Literary Works as A Reflection of Socio-Cultural of Society Literary works, such as drama, must be able to express things in the form of the coherent picture about ideas or events in society. According to Koentowijoyo (2006:173) that bagi pengarang sastra satu-satunya kaidah ialah kejujuran; seorang pengarang harus belajar untuk bertanggungjawab sehingga dirinya berharga di dalam kebebasan itu. In writing drama, it is needed theme, situation and characters to maintain a plot. According to Bernard Grebanier (in Koentowijoyo, 2006:176) the three of the elements can be taken away from the events of history. The events of history can become the basis of creation of literary works, it is like the literary work of Tolstoy entitled ‘War and Peace’. The setting of Tolstoy’s work is about the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte to Russia, and Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion is considered as the base material to write a story of ‘War and Peace’ (Forster in Koentowijoyo, 2006:176). Literary works which use the events of history as the base component has relationship with historical truth although the truth of history is also relative. The author of literary works can use wide past to refuse or to support an interpretation or a picture of society in the past which has established. Koentowijoyo (2006:178) mentioned that the works of Solzhenitsyn refuses the idea of historical optimism about society transformation under communism aspiration in Russia by presenting an alternative of picture or the other historical truth. The way of agreeing oneself and makes the picture of history according to the one sided version have been recognized also in traditional histograph, for example in Java there are many Chronicle versions of Diponegoro (Babad Diponegoro). Then, literary works are born as intellectual replies to the problem of a certain era by using past time as a reflection. The works of Sir Walter Scott (1771183-1771-183) entitled 'Waverly 'and 'Ivanhoe ' is the works which shows the spirit of struggle in the 19th century but he uses the past time as a theme. The work of Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) entitled 'The Captain's Daughter 'is to describe the rebellion of Pugachov farmer in fighting against Peter I critically. So, it can also be seen in Indonesian literary works, such as the works of Pramoedya Anantra Toer entitled 'Bumi Manusia’ and 'Anak Semua Bangsa’. His works were prohibited by Indonesian government at a period of Orde Baru because it is depicting a history epoch, the relationship between humans, and social changes critically and sharply. Here, the author presents a historical truth and not actual occurences or actual personalities just the same as someone who also tries to identify the characters. The literary works which are based on the history is still as a work of imaginary (Koentowijoyo, 2006:179). Literary works with the background of history will assist the reader or literature beneficiary to facilitate them in involving and recognizing the history of a 45

International Journal of Social Sciences Research nation although the story in it is imaginative. Literary works, such as drama, becomes the eyewitness and inspired by the history in a certain era. Literary works also can affect the events of history in a certain era by forming a public opinion, for example a novel of Multatuli entitled 'Max Havelar' (1860), a novel of Harriet Beecher Stowe entitled 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852) and a novel of Jonathan Swift entitled 'Gulliver's Travels ' are famous literary works because of the public opinion. All of them reflect the socio-cultural condition of society in a certain era and ,of course, full of political issue in it. A Dutch author named Boeka was exactly more critical in seeing and reflecting economic social problem in his era. His work entitled 'Pah Troena' (1901) carp about the lowering of prosperity of Javanese and claims the changes. A kind of this criticism, finally, produces the ethical politics. A social reality which is told through the imaginary characters can give the live pictures about a certain era. It is also added by graphical paintings about a village at the end of 19th century, this work reflects clearly about economic social situation at that era. The events in the story are not real but it contains of historical truth. A novel of Linus Suryadi A.G. entitled 'Pengakuan Pariyem’(1981) expresses a social reality in describing the fate of a village resident who has to move to a big city. The life of Pariyem also represents some of Javanese women and it can generate woman movement protest. The work of Linus becomes an eyewitness at that era about urbanization and the fate of women as the second sex and about the culture of poverty from Gunung Kidul area. A novel of Marah Rusli entitled ‘Sitti Nurbaya’ reflects a social condition of women in that era. Women who cannot choose what they want for their best life and their life is always ended as an obey wife who can do nothing at all. The events of history and social also can become a base for creations of literary work. Imagination elements can develop the events of history and social becomes a story which contains of moral values and humanity. Koentowijoyo (2006:177) mentioned that dalam penulisan karya sastra, sejarah dan kondisi sosial budaya masyarakat tidak saja bersifat ornamental tetapi structural, artinya ia bukan saja hadir sebagai penghias supaya cerita menarik tetapi ikut beroperasi secara a priori dalam seluruh pekerjaan merekonstruksi sejarah dan memaparkan kondisi sosial budaya di masyarakat tertentu.. It has the same opinion as Rees (1973:15) that literature must seem real, hold the mirror up to nature, it is life enhanching and a criticism of life. Literary works represent the portrait of society, social analysis which claims society changes, and sometimes literary works serve the philosophy which gives the basis assessment about what is going on. So, Drama, as one of literature genres, represents an art form which is through a symbolic process and related to the socio cultural at a certain society. Drama represents a verbal symbol which has a role as a means of idea links or society reflection in a certain era. As Kuntowijoyo (2006:171) stated that karya sastra sebagai symbol verbal mempunyai beberapa peranan diantaranya sebagai cara pemahaman (model of comprehension), cara komunikasi (model of communication), dan 46

Ch. Evy Tri Widyahening cara penciptaan (model of creation). It means that a literary work is as a verbal symbol which has some roles to be the model of comprehension, the model of communication, and the model of creation. The Role of Literary Works as An Interpretation of Socio-Cultural of Society The object which is used in literary works, especially drama, is about the reality of social life of society, for example the history of slavery in America in the 17th century which then recorded in the author’s memory and then it becomes the background of a story in drama. On that account, from history of slavery in America in the 17th century then literary works can try to interpret the events in imaginary languages and dialogue with an aim is to comprehend the event happened at a period of slavery according to the ability of the author. Besides, the background of slavery in America in the 17th century can become the supporting facilities for the author to give his or her opinion, feeling, and comments about the history of slavery. It can be seen from the ‘Autobiography of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave’ which interprets the condition of slaves in slavery era from Douglass’ point of view as a free man from slavery. Literary works, especially drama, can represent the recreation of an event of history as according to the author’s craftsmanship and also can interpret the social condition of society in a certain era from a literary work. Literary works have been successfull to interpret the socio-cultural of society in a certain era. The work of ‘Anna and The King’ is successfull to interpret the difference condition of western and eastern societies. Anna, the main character, is a symbol of western culture who wants to try to change the condition of society in Siam. The King is a symbol of eastern culture who interpret as a powerful man and can do no wrong in his territory. The interpretation of love, hate, self-confident, responsibility, and so on can be found from literary woks. Interpretation has an important role to understand a literary work, especially a literary work which contains of myth in it. ‘Salah Asuhan’ as one of a literary work from Balai Pustaka try to interpret the condition of Hanafi and Corrie’s family relationship. It also interprets the personality of Corry. Corry, who is a foreign woman and married by Hanafi, treats badly to Simin. What Corry does to Simin can be interpreted as the snobbery of foreigners to the indigenous peoples. A novel of J.R.R. Tolkien entitled ‘Lord Of The Ring’ interpret the characteristics of human beings who are arrogant, greedy, jealous, vicious, humble, kind-hearted, responsible and so on. His work becomes an inspiration for other cineas to produce a film with the same title and it is very successful to attract audience to watch it. ‘Layar Terkembang’ by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana interprets about the relationship between two young teenagers who falls in love. ‘The Adventure of Tom Sawyer’ by Mark Twain interpret a peace relationship between Whites, Blacks, Yellows and Reds from the children’ views. He uses the characters of children in creating his works to tell the readers that people should live in a 47

International Journal of Social Sciences Research peace and do not look others from their race, religion, wealth or background, it is just like every children who never see his or her friend’s background then they can live in a peace way. A story can show us an event that has ever happened. A story is a way to communicate and to interpret the situation or condition of society in a certain era. An author or playwrights should be smart to arrange plots in order that he or she can attract the audience or readers. He or she should be able to create characters who can interpret the condition or situation in his or her story. Basically, most of human life can be used as a material to create stories by the authors or playwrights. So, literature and socio culture support each other and create the relationship between both of them. Summary Literary works, especially drama, represent the picture of cultural social condition of a certain society at a certain era. Literary works also contains of author’s ideas as well as representing the history reflection of a nation. The characters in the story represent human types which are existed in society along with all grief, happiness, fate, and development of psychology. By reading and enjoying literary works, we will be able to anticipate about how a social class with the background of a certain cultural tradition formed in society or how the history of a nation and the problems of its ideals can tear the life of a nation. Literature as a symbol system has tightly relationship with a social system which has brought it then it can be concluded that by studying literature from the side of intellectual has the same way by studying the awareness of society. As Koentowijoyo (2006:195) stated that ….mempelajari sastra dari segi intelektual sama dengan mempelajari kesadaran masyarakatnya. Literary works, especially drama, describe the human life with his or her problems. It is also about motives in it, about conflicts between humans, about the development of conflicts and the resolution. Literary works are also able to show the history of a nation in a certain era by using figurative languages, it also explains about the social system in society, culture, customs, and the social changes which are happened. Literary works are told by using past time as reflections and become intellectual replies to the problem of a certain era. So, literary works, especially drama, represent an art that is formed through a symbolic process and it relates to the socio-cultural in a certain society. Literary works represent a symbol verbal which has roles as a means of comprehension, communication, and creation. Literary works, especially drama, represent the mirror of life which needs the craftmanships of the author in processing his or her writing as an imaginative work.

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Ch. Evy Tri Widyahening References Barnet, Silvan et al. 2001. An Introduction to Literature. Boston: Little Brown Comp. Harymawan, R.M.A. 1988. Dramaturgi. Bandung: CV. Rosda Karya Iwuchukwu, Onyeka. 2008. Elements of Drama. Lagos: National Open University of Nigeria. Khotari. 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Technique. New Delhi: New Age International. Kuntowijoyo. 2006. Budaya dan Masyarakat. Yogyakarta: Tiara Wacana. Miles, Mathew dan Michael Huberman. 1992. Analisis Data Kualitatif. Jakarta: Penerbit Universitas Indonesia (Terjemahan Cecep Rohendi). Moody, H.L.B. 1989. Metode Pengajaran Sastra. Translated by B. Rahmanto. Yogyakarta: Kanisius publisher. Rastelli, Liliana Russo. 2006. Drama in Language Learning. Encuentro Journal: Journal Of Research and Innovation in The Language Classroom. Vol. 16, 2006. Ratna, Nyoman Kutha. 2011. Antropologi Sastra: Peranan Unsur-unsur Kebudayaan dalam Proses Kreatif. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar. Rees, R.J. 1973. English Literature: An Introduction for Foreign Readers. London: Macmillan Education Limited. Suryadi, Linus. 1981. Pengakuan Pariyem. Yogyakarta: Kanisius. Teeuw, A. 1984. Sastra dan Ilmu Sastra. Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya. Waluyo, Herman .J. 2006. Drama Naskah, Pementasan, dan Pengajarannya. Surakarta: LPP UNS and UNS Press.

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