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SOCIAL CRITICISMS IN MAYA ANGELOU’S POEMS
(A Semiotic Approach)
THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment
of Requirements for the SarjanaSastra Degree in English Department
Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts of SebelasMaret University
by
ShefieldFahmysari
C0309056
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
2014
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MOTTOES
Innal Amra Kullahuu Lillah
Sesungguhnya Segala Urusan Itu di Tangan Allah SWT.
(QS. Ali Imran: 154)
Look like a girl,act like a lady,think like a man,and work like a boss.
(The anonymous)
There is always a way.
(The researcher)
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For Family AndFriends
And For Those Who Worship the Beauty Of The Words
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Praise to Allah SWTfor always blessing and guiding me in finishing this
research. In writing this thesis, I also realized that I have been receiving tons of
encouragements from many people. Therefore, I would like to sincerely express my
deepest gratitude, particularly to:
1. Drs. RiyadiSantoso, M.Ed., Ph.D., as the Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine
Arts, Sebelas Maret University.
2. Drs. AgusHariWibowo, M.A, Ph.D., the Head of English Department.
3. Yusuf Kurniawan, S.S., M.A., my academic supervisor.
4. Drs. Mugijatna, M.Si., Ph.D., as my thesis supervisor, for all the guidance,
advices, and supports given.
5. Dra. Sri Kusumo Habsari, M.Hum., Ph.D., for all the guidance, advices, and
supports given.
6. All lecturers of the English Department, for the great lessons about
everything, not only about the courses but also about life.
7. My dearest family, for physically and mentally support me all the time.
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8. My sisters in SOKA MERAH. Dewi Ikke, Wulandari, Ismaul Fitroh, Leni,
Aulia, Dwi Setya N, Mita R, Ulva, and Amalia R, for the great times and nice
discussions.
9. My beloved literature worshipers, especially to Mas Niko Fediyanto and
Mbak Nabil for those great references.
10. All of classmates in the English Department 2009, keep fighting guys!
11. Maya Angelou, for giving birth to many works about racial and gender
discriminations, with which finally teach me how to be a “Phenomenal
Woman”.
Surakarta, August 2014
Shefield Fahmysari
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover ...................................................................................................................i
Approval of The Thesis Supervisor ....................................................................ii
Approval of The Board of Examiners ................................................................. iii
Pronouncement ....................................................................................................iv
Mottoes................................................................................................................ v
Dedication ...........................................................................................................vi
Acknowledgement............................................................................................... vii
Table of Contents ................................................................................................ix
Abstract ............................................................................................................... x
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
A. Research Background................................................................................ 1
B. Research Questions ................................................................................... 3
C. Research Limitation .................................................................................. 4
D. Research Objectives .................................................................................. 4
E. Research Benefits ...................................................................................... 4
F. Research Methodology.............................................................................. 5
G. Thesis Organization .................................................................................. 8
CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................ 9
A. Previous Researches .................................................................................. 9
B. Semiotics of Poetry ................................................................................... 11
1. The Indirectness .................................................................................... 13
a. Displacing meaning .......................................................................... 13
b. Distorting meaning ........................................................................... 13
c. Creating meaning .............................................................................. 14
2. The Poem’s Significance ...................................................................... 15
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3. Sign Production .................................................................................... 16
a. Semes and Presupposition ................................................................ 16
b. Clichés .............................................................................................. 17
c. Descriptive systems .......................................................................... 17
4. Text Production .................................................................................... 18
a. Expansion ......................................................................................... 18
b. Conversion ........................................................................................ 19
5. Interpretants .......................................................................................... 19
a. Lexematicinterpretant ....................................................................... 20
b. Textual interpretant........................................................................... 20
C. African American Women ........................................................................ 21
D. Social Criticism in Literature .................................................................... 23
E. Biography of Maya Angelou ..................................................................... 24
F. Frame of Thought ...................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER III : ANALYSIS .............................................................................. 28
A. Social Criticisms in Maya Angelou’s poems ............................................ 29
1. “Woman Work” .................................................................................... 30
2. “Still I Rise” ......................................................................................... 37
3. “Televised” ........................................................................................... 42
4. “Phenomenal Woman” ........................................................................ 47
5. “Weekend Glory” ................................................................................. 53
6. “Awaking in New York” ...................................................................... 57
B. The Way Angelou Expresses Her Social Criticisms ................................. 61
CHAPTER IV : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION .................... 67
A. Conclusion ................................................................................................ 67
B. Recommendation....................................................................................... 68
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ABSTRACT
Shefield Fahmysari. C0309056. 2014. Social Criticisms in Maya Angelou’s
Poems. Undergraduate Thesis. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas
Maret University.
The objectives of this research are to identify the social criticisms in Maya
Angelou’s poems and to describe how she expresses her social criticisms in her
poems.
This research employs semiotic approach and applies Riffaterre’s Semiotics of
Poetry theory to answer the problem statements. This thesis is a descriptive
qualitative library research. The data is divided into the main and secondary data.
The main data or primary data of this research are taken from The Complete
Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (2009) published by Random House, Inc. The
selected poems are“Woman Work”, “Still I Rise”, “Televised”, “Phenomenal
Woman”, “Weekend Glory”, and “Awaking in New York”. Meanwhile, the
secondary data are taken from any sources that support the analysis of the data,
both from books and online resources.
The six poems of Maya Angelou analyzed in this research contain social
criticisms concerning the racism and sexism issues. They are the AfricanAmerican woman duties as single parents, the African-American woman double
burdens as the “slave” descendent, the televised news’ exploitation of the Africans
hunger plague, the American’s standard of woman beauty, the White secularism,
the racial and gender inequality in New York City. Furthermore, the way Angelou
expresses her social criticisms is divided into four major ways. First, Angelou
employs a simple idea structure written in easy understood word-choices of non
African-American Vernacular English. Second, she employs numerous metaphors
as the attractive way to attract the readers’ curiosity in the process of
understanding the poem’s significance. Third, she uses several repetitions to
arouse the readers’ emotion in order to experience her sensitivity. Fourth, she uses
other texts in the form of written materials and life as the hypogram of the poem.
Based on the conclusion, it is recommended to other researchers to analyze
social criticisms on poetry by usingother theories and approaches to enrich the
type of research in English Department, especially the research on poetry.
Keywords: social criticisms, Riffaterre’s Semiotics of Poetry, and Maya Angelou’s
poems.
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