On Literary Criticism: Looking into Noers Moths from the planes of light of New Critics, Russian Formalists and the Structuralists

Herujiyanto Herujiyanto(1*),

(1) Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Without denying the truth of the so-called silent enim leges inter arma [Law stands mute in the midst of arms], this paper makes use of the analytical perspectives of New Criticism, Russian Formalism and Structuralism to look into Arifin C. Noers play named Moths. It is admitted that literary critics often define their assumptions about literary work and the better way to go about reading it (and writing about it). The New Critics, Russian Formalists and the Structuralists are only three of them. According to Ian Ousby, the three groups can be described as formalists; they share a common conception: a work is autotelic, that is, complete in itself, written for its own sake, and unified by its form that which makes it a work of art.1 Looking closer at the three movements, we would undoubtedly find that they are not exactly the same. The New Critics, for example, explicitly repudiated English Romanticism and its radical tradition while Russian Formalists merely attacked the utilitarian and social tradition.2 Then, Russian Formalists were concerned with the way in which the individual work of art was perceived differently against the background of the literary system as a whole. The Structuralists, however, set themselves the task of describing the organization of the total sign-system itself by dissolving the individual unit back into the langue of which it is a partial articulation.3 The end goal of this study is, thus, to find the possible ways to go about reading the play; to see how the playwright seems to write about his work; and to have a better understanding of the nature of the play.

Keywords


New Criticism, Russian Formalism, Structuralism, literary system, playwright

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References


Brecht, Bertold. (1964). Brecht on Theatre, ed. & trans. John Willet. New York: Hill and Wang.

Brooks, Cleanth and Robert B. Heilman. (1953). Understanding Drama. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

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Mobley, Jonnie Patricia. (1992). NTCs Dictionary of Theatre and Drama Terms. Chicago: National Textbook Company.

Noer, Arifin C. (1974). Moths, trans. Harry Aveling. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

_____ . (1992). The Bottomless Well, trans. Karin Johnson & Bernard Sellato. Jakarta: The Lontar Foundation.

Ousby, Ian, ed. (1992). The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Selden, Roman. (1989). Practising Theory and Reading Literature. Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Thompson, Ewa M. (1971). Russian Formalism and Anglo-American New Criticism. The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v17i1.277

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 LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt, e-ISSN 2579-9533 and p-ISSN 1410-7201is published twice a year, namely in April and October by the English Language Education Study Programme of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.