A Deferred Meaning of Home in Claude McKay’s Novel Home to Harlem

Taking a title of his first novel Home to Harlem (1928), Claude McKay as the implied author seems to bring the perception of his readers to a standpoint saying that Harlem was a final destination for blacks in the early 20th century, the time setting of the novel. Paradoxically, the novel gives a twisted ending by letting both of the main black characters in the novel, Jake and Ray, leave Harlem because of different reasons. This article aims to show a deferred meaning of “Home to Harlem” in the novel as well as to find the hidden aim in the novel. This research will use Derrida’s theory about deconstruction and differance concept. The result shows that the text seems to deconstruct a myth about Harlem as the mecca of the New Negro. The meaning of home in the novel has deferred into a space inhabited by a familiar in which one can find needs of physical, intellectual, mental, and emotional security. A decision to leave Harlem chosen by both of main characters in the novel is a symbol that Harlem cannot be the best representative of African American’s home enabling to meet all of blacks’ needs of racial equality in the early twentieth century. Keywords: deconstruction, deferred meaning, Harlem, hom

HIPERREALITAS DAN KUASA KAPITALISME DALAM FILM IN TIME (2011)

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menunjukkan bentuk dari hiperrealitas dan kuasa kapitalisme yang terjadi di dalam film In Time (2011), sebuah film fiksi ilmiah distopian Amerika yang menggambarkan ilusi kehidupan yang terjadi pada abad ke-22. Film ini menggambarkan sebuah masyarakat yang di dalamnya orang-orang akan secara genetik berhenti menua di usia 25 tahun. Usia mereka kemudian akan ditentukan pada kepemilikan waktu yang terlihat pada “jam tangan waktu” mereka. Film ini cenderung membandingkan dua kehidupan masyarakat yang berbeda, Dayton –sebuah masyarakat miskin- dan New Greenwich –sebuah masyarakat kaya. Penelitian ini menggunakan teori Jean Bauldrillard tentang tanda, simulasi, hiperrealitas, dan masyarakat konsumsi. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah ditemukannya ciri-ciri hiperrealitas di dalam film In Time yang ditunjukkan secara konsisten melalui penggambaran kehidupan masyarakat di kota New Greenwich. Hiperrealitas tersebut direfleksikan melalui keberadaan dari keabadian, keawetmudaan, dan kemewahan atau konsumerisme yang berlebihan pada masyarakat borjuis New Greenwich. Kuasa kapitalisme menjadi sangat berpengaruh terhadap terciptanya dunia hiperrealitas tersebut. Kuasa kapitalisme ini berhasil membentuk masyarakat konsumer yang terjebak di dalam lubang hitam kebutuhan, baik yang bernilai guna maupun yang bernilai simbolis

Penggunaan Biblical Allusion Dalam Film The Shawshank Redemption Untuk Memperkuat Tema Harapan Dalam Novella Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption Karya Stephen King

This article wants to indicate the use of biblical allusion in The Shawshank Redemption movie adapted from a Stephen King‟s novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. In its adaptation process, Frank Darabont, the movie director, seems to increase the level of hope by contrasting hope from desperation. The deeper meaning of the theme “hope” is caused by the use of biblical allusion, which is the concept of hope, implemented in the movie. This article will use the biblical allusion concept to analyse the deeper meaning of the theme in the movie. The result shows there are three new findings from the movie, not found in the novella, causing the deeper meaning of the theme. First, Darabont uses foil characters, Brooks and Warden Norton, to compare the concept of hope introduced by Andy and the desperation. Second, Darabont adds some music elements to the movie as a media used for remaining the hope. Music gives strength and endurance to survive from facing the struggles. Third, Darabont shows that there must be a reward or result for every single hope. Nothing is useless for anyone who keeps his hope within him and be brave to make it happen

Absurditas dalam Novella Si Benalu Karya Nescio

This paper aims to show the forms of absurdity in Nescio's novella, Si Benalu. The forms of absurdity in the novella are found through an analysis of how the main character Japi sees his surrounding life and other people's judgments of Japi, who is called Si Benalu in the text. To analyze the concept of absurdity, the writer uses the concept of absurdity by Albert Camus. The result shows a journey of awareness of the main character Japi towards the absurdity of life. Japi, with his idealism, chooses to become a "parasite" to show his rebellion against a life that he considers absurd. Besides, some forms of absurdity are also demonstrated through Japi's interactions with his three friends, namely Bavink, Koekebakker, and Hoyer. Japi's idealism makes him seen absurd by his friends. However, his failure to maintain his idealism makes his life ended tragically. Japi finally chooses to commit suicide, meaning that Japi consciously relinquishes power over his autonomous self to this absurd world. Key words: absurd, absurdity, parasite, rebellio

Dominasi Budaya Patriarki dalam Novel “The Buddha in the Attic” karya Julie Otsuka

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menemukan dan membuktikan adanya dominasi budaya patriarki di dalam novel “The Buddha in the Attic” karya Julie Otsuka. Budaya patriarki adalah suatu budaya yang menekankan dominasi kekuasaan laki-laki terhadap perempuan. Dalam novel ini, pengarang mendeskripsikan pengaruh dominasi patriarki yang terjadi dan sekaligus merambat luas melintasi batasan geografis, baik wilayah dunia bagian Timur (Jepang) maupun bagian Barat (Amerika). The Buddha in the Attic menceritakan kisah perjalanan dan kehidupan para wanita imigran Jepang yang berlayar ke Amerika pada awal 1900-an dengan tujuan untuk mencari kehidupan dan kesejahteraan yang lebih baik. Berawal dengan mengikuti sebuah tradisi “picture brides”, sebuah praktek perjodohan di awal abad ke dua puluh melalui sistem pertukaran foto, para wanita imigran Jepang diperhadapkan dengan kenyataan pahit kehidupan Amerika yang juga sarat dengan isu dominasi patriarki. Analisis penelitian ini akan menggunakan pendekatan feminisme gelombang kedua dengan mengangkat teori Sexual Politics dari seorang feminis radikal, Kate Millet, yang menekankan bahwa esensi dari politik adalah kuasa dan konsep yang paling mendasar dan menyebar dari sebuah kuasa di tengah masyarakat adalah kekuasaan laki-laki. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah novel The Buddha in the Attic ini dengan jelas mendeskripsikan perempuan menjadi pihak yang dikuasai, sedangkan laki-laki menjadi pihak yang menguasai. Penelitian ini juga menemukan tiga bentuk dominasi patriarki terhadap perempuan, yakni: 1) kekuasaan yang terjadi dalam pembagian tugas (seksisme) antara suami dan istri terhadap kebutuhan sehari-hari, pekerjaan rumah, dan juga terhadap anak, 2) kekuasaan terhadap tubuh perempuan, yang menyangkut relasi suami-istri, suami-istri-pria lain, dan pria-wanita (istri orang lain). 3) kekuasaan dari sifat maskulin terhadap feminin sebagai wujud dari konstruksi gender oleh masyarakat

In Search of Black Maids’ Subjectivity in The Help Movie

This article aims to show the journey of two black maids in the film The Help (2011) in finding their own subjectivity as independent black women. The film portrays the hardness of many black maids’ lives in the middle of patriarchal and interracial issues happened in Jackson, Mississipi, in 1963. This research will use race and class concepts to show the multiple layers of discrimination occurred to the black maids, Aibeleen Clark and Minny Jackson, as well as the subjectivity theories to show the process of finding their subjectivity and the forms of the subjectivity itself. The results show both of the black maids reach their self-consciousness before being able to state their subjectivity. In addition, the forms of subjectivity portrayed in the film can be found in both women’s verbal and non-verbal languages