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Chapter I

Introduction

1.1. Background of Choosing the Subject

Popular literature is regarded as low cultural

product, enjoyable form and easy to consumed. It

could not be used as an object of investigation since

it was not regarded as important as high literature.

However, after 1960s, scholars, especially in the

world of academia realized that popular literature as

respectable object of investigation as other high

literature. Gelder in his book entitled Popular

Fiction states that popular literature is a form of low

cultural production and mass production, because

popular literature has less to do with discourses of

creativity and originality, and more to do with

production and entertain the readers1.

According to what Gelder has stated, it can be

said that popular literature is literature that is

intended for the masses and its aim is to entertain the

1 Ken Gelder, Popular Fiction. The Logics and Practices of a

Literary Fields (USA:Routlede, 2004), 15

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readers. Stanton also states in his book entitled An

Introduction to Fiction that popular fiction is always

the more enjoyable form and easy to read because it

merely “tells a story”, while serious fiction is a more

difficult form because in understanding the story

readers are demanded to do careful reading,

rereading and analyzing it.2

In order to meet the public demand, several

genres of popular literature are created. Those

genres are romance, science fiction, horror and

others. However, getting along with public taste,

romance becomes one of the most popular genres.

Producing aimed mostly for women it remains the

larger share of the consumer market compared to

other genres. The reasons why romance is so popular

are because of its diversity of the genre, titles aimed

mostly for women, who read 90.5 percent of all

romance novels and the low price helps make

romance becomes the number one category on best-

seller lists.3

2 Robert Stanton, An Introduction to Fiction (New York: Holt,

Rinehart and Winston, Inc, 1965), 2-3 3 http://www.rjeffers.com/romancegenre.pdf (dod: December

17, 2016)

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Romance is a story which the central line is

about the development of a love relationship, usually

between man and woman.4 Romance is also

described as an exciting relationship between two

people who are in love with each other while

romantic means being beautiful in a way that makes

someone thinks of love or feels strong emotion.5

Based on those previous arguments, it can be said

that romance in literary work is one of the genres

that deals with love story. Usually, the women

become the center of the story that it must be

experienced by the heroine’s point of view. 6

As a genre, romance has two basic elements

that a romance novel usually has, which are a central

love story and a satisfying and optimistic ending. In

romance novels, the main plot centers around two

individuals falling in love and struggling to make

their relationship works. The author still can include

4 John G. Cawelti, Romance: The Once and Future Queen

(USA:The Wilson Quarterly, 1978), 102 5 A.S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2000), 1156 6 Janice A. Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy

and Popular Literature (United States: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 70

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as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the

main focus of the novel is still the love story. The

story then tells about the lovers who struggle for

each other and their relationship is awarded with a

happy ending. The happiness which is usually

presented at the end of the story becomes the result

of solving the obstacles between the two lovers. It is

in line to what Cawelti says that the moral fantasy of

the romance is that of love triumphant and

permanent, overcoming all obstacles and

difficulties.7

Romance appeals the readers, especially women

since it provides a perfect love story which

guarantees a happy ending. Another reason why

romance attracts the readers is because it often

depicts human experience in reality. Popular

romance novels are read by the readers because most

of them want to have the same experience on

romance like the heroine’s in the story. Many of

romance novel readers find reading romance as

7 John. G. Cawelti, Adventure, Mystery and Romance: Formula

Stories as Art and Popular Culture, (USA: The University of Chicago, 1976), 261

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seeking pleasure while the others do it as an

escapism.

One of the works which categorized as popular

romance is The Twilight Saga. The Twilight Saga is

series which consists of four novels; Twilight, New

Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn written by an

American author, Stephenie Meyer. It talks about

love story of Bella Swan who falls in love with a

vampire, Edward Cullen. The conflict begins when

Bella, as a human, realizes that she is in danger

situation by falling in love with a vampire. With

Edward, she tries to overcome the obstacles that she

has been through throughout the series. The plot also

presents a triangle love among Bella, Edward and

Jacob Black, who is a werewolf. The story gets more

interesting when Bella finally realizes that she is

also in love with her werewolf friend, who is the

enemy of Edward.

The series becomes popular since its first novel,

Twilight was released in 2005. The series then

become more popular when the author, Meyer,

released the second until the fourth novel. The

popularity is shown by the number of selling of the

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novel and winning some prizes. In 2008, Breaking

Dawn won British Book Award for "Children's Book

of the Year", while the series as a whole won the

2009 Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Book. In

2011, the series had sold over hundreds million

copies worldwide with translations into at least 38

different languages around the globe. The four

Twilight books have set records as the biggest

selling novels of 2008 on the USA Today Best-

Selling Books list and have spent over 235 weeks on

the New York Times Best Seller list for Children's

Series Books.8

Because of its popularity, Summit Entertainment

made those four books into films. The film

adaptations of the first three books were released in

2008, 2009, and 2010. The fourth book is adapted

into two parts, Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Breaking

Dawn Part 2. The first film was released in

November 2011 while the second film in November

2012.

8 Grossman (2009) via http://content.time.com/time/

magazine/article/0,9171,1938712-1,00.html (dod: October 28, 2016)

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What makes the Twilight series becomes

interesting to the readers is that it presents an

uncommon vampire story. Since Twilight tells about

the vampire world, the author is so creative in

making the interpretation of what vampires are like.

She creates the vampire as more likeable character

and changes the myth of the vampires as the killers.

Twilight also appeals its readers since it presents

uncommon love story that it depicts a forbidden love

between a human and vampire which rarely told in

romance narratives before. Since Twilight introduces

the new kind of this story, there are so many gothic-

romance fictions come up and become popular, too.

Without Twilight, it might be said that those other

gothic-romance fictions and new vampire novels

would not have become as popular as it is today.

Twilight as the pioneer of gothic romance fiction

and new vampire story, successful attract the readers

and can be said as the most popular vampire themed

novel franchise in history of literature. As predicate

becoming one of the most successful vampire

stories, Twilight is supported with the amazing main

characters, including Bella Swan. Bella who takes

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the role as a heroine in the story seems to appeal the

readers with her characteristics. Bella becomes one

of the most favorite heroines due to her role in

Twilight. As a popular heroine, Bella is depicted as

an ordinary who can reflect the real normal girl in

reality so that the readers could see themselves in

her. As a heroine, Bella has some characteristics

which are very interesting to be studied. How Bella

is created and how she appeals the readers, as a

female heroine in Twilight series will be explained

in this paper. Dealing with Meyer’s Bella Swan in

Twilight series is challenging to see how Bella’s

characterization is created and depicted.

1.2. Research Questions

Based on the background of the study, there are

questions arise. The problems discussed in this paper

are put into two questions:

1. How is Bella Swan created?

2. How does Bella Swan appeal the readers?

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1.3. Objectives of the Study

Based on the background of the study and

research questions, the objectives of this study

are:

1. To find out how Bella Swan is created as a

popular heroine.

2. To identify how Bella Swan appeals the readers.

1.4. Focus and Scope of the Study

Studying Twilight can be carried out in many

different ways. This can include study on the genre,

the plot and the production of the novels. This paper,

however, only focuses on investigating the character

named Bella Swan as the popular heroine in Twilight

series. It studies how Bella Swan is created as a

female main character. Also, the study identifies

how Bella Swan appeals the readers. The scope of

the study covers Bella’s characteristics using a

psychoanalytical approach. To gain the answer, the

writer needs to get information about popular

literature and theory about psychoanalytical

approach.

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1.5. Literature Review

There have been some researches that talk about

the Twilight series. Firstly, Panca Destrianto who is

from Universitas Gadjah Mada conducted a research

entitled Stephenie Meyers World View in Relation to

New Vampire Characteristics in The Twilight Saga.

In his research, he talked about new vampire

characteristics that have not been found in the

previous vampire stories. The objective of his

research is to describe what new vampire

characteristics seen in Twilight and to discuss what

they stand for.

Different with Destrianto, Shabrina Cintysa,

who is also a student of English Department,

Universitas Gadjah Mada made a research about the

Twilight series. Her research is entitled Comparative

Study on Popular Literature: A Reader-Response

Critic on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and Kami

Garcia and Margaret Stohl apostrophe’s Beautiful

Creatures. In her undergraduate thesis, she

compared and found out the readers’ expectations

about the characteristic of gothic romance work. In

her research, it is explained that Meyer’s Twilight is

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more widely read compared to Gracia and Stohl’s

Beautiful Creatures. In her research she found out

and identified the reasons why make Twilight is

more appealing to the readers.

Thirdly, Farina Rizky Aziz, who is from

Universitas Sumatera Utara, conducted a research

which is entitled An Analysis of Intrinsic Elements in

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. In this undergraduate

thesis, she analyzed the intrinsic elements which are

characters, theme, plot and setting found in the

novel. Those intrinsic elements are later supported

with the narrations and dialogues from the novel.

Different with Aziz, Larisza Asyeana Rahel, a

student of Universitas Pamulang wrote about gender

stereotypes as seen in Twilight. Her research which

is entitled An Analysis of Gender Stereotypes In

"Twilight" (A Literature Study) aims to find out how

the author, Stephenie Meyer, characterized the two

main characters in Twilight, who are Edward Cullen

and Bella Swan. In her research, she also analyzed

the stereotyped characteristics that can be found in

both of the two main characters that make different

with those previous researches.

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The Twilight series also becomes the object of

the study done by Diah Ayu Ramadhani, from

Universitas Sumatera Utara. She conducted a

research which is entitled The Love Value of Edward

and Bella’s Love Pictured in Stephenie Meyer Novel

“Twilight". Through her research, Diah described

and analyzed the value of love expressed by two

main characters, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. In

her research, she also discussed how those two main

characters express their love in their romantic

relationship.

Lastly, Dwi Lisa Susanti, who is a student of

English Department from Universitas Gadjah Mada

also wrote a graduating paper using Twilight as the

object of her research. Her research is entitled

Romantic Characters in Popular Literature: A

Reader-Response Criticism on Stephenie Meyer’s

Twilight. In her research, Susanti analyzed what kind

of romantic characters are being adored by the most

Twilight readers. She also described how romantic

characters are presented in Twilight and explained

what the readers say about romantic characters they

adore. In doing her research, she collected the data

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from comments and responses from the Twilight

readers written on the internet.

Unlike those previous researches, this present

paper intends to discuss Bella Swan as a heroine in

Twilight. What makes this present paper is different

with those previous researches is it uses

psychoanalysis theory proposed by Jaques Lacan

which has not been discussed yet in any other

research paper. In this paper, the writer tries to

connect Bella as the heroine with the readers’

psychology. Through this paper, the writer also

explains how Bella’s characteristics are presented

and appealing the Twilight’s readers.

1.6. Theoretical Approach

1.6.1. Popular Fiction

Literally, popular fiction consists of two words;

popular and fiction. According to Hornby popular

means something which is liked or enjoyed by a

large number of people, while fiction is a type of

literature that presents imaginary people and events

which are not the real ones.9 From the statement, it

9 Horby, 492

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can be said that popular fiction is those fictions that

tell about imaginary people and events that is liked

by a large number of audience or readers. In his

book entitled An Introduction to Fiction, Stanton

also said that popular fiction is easier to read

because it only tells a story while the serious fiction

is more difficult because the readers are asked to

read carefully and analyze it. It is as described in the

quotation below:

Serious fiction has its purpose to depict human

experiences; to do this it employs facts, themes

and literary devices, and to enjoy it we must

sometimes analyze these parts and see how they

are related to each other.10

1.6.2. Psychoanalysis Theory

Jaques Lacan was a French Psychoanalyst who

proposed the theory about mirror stage that relates to

the stage when a child develops in his first to

recognize his own reflection, usually in a mirror.

Lacan believed that at around the age of six months

an infant begins to recognize its own reflection in a

10

Stanton, 7

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mirror.11

The explanation about the theory of mirror

stage is written in the following quotation:

In the mirror stage, this stage corresponds to the

period between the ages of 6 and 18 months. It

takes place after the infant has seen itself

through a mirror. It is only the image of its

current self but also the promise of complete

self whereby the ego begins to emerge. The

infant begins to see itself as individual

consisting of the subject of self that looks and

object or the self that is looked. With the mirror

phase, the infant enters into the order of

subjectivity that Lacan refers to as the

imaginary moment. The phase is characterized

by the desire and a fantasy image. 12

From the quotation above, Lacan describes that

human through the moment when they see their

reflections and try to see what they lack of. By

looking at themselves, they realize that they lack of I

some things while their ego begins to arise. Thus, in

this stage, they also make a creation of an ideal

version of the self that forces make a fantasy image.

In this fantasy image, they try to imagine what they

11

John Forrester. The Seminar of Jaques Lacan (New York: WW Norton & Company Inc, 1988), 168 12

Jean Michael Rabate. The Cambridge Companion to Lacan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 29-30

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lack of is fulfilled in by others that they set up as a

mirror for themselves.

1.7. Method of Research

The writer of this study uses two types of data;

primary and secondary data. The primary data are

the series which includes Twilight, New Moon,

Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Other important data

are comments taken from internet while the

secondary data are books written by the experts that

are relevant to the analysis. Although they are as

important as the novel series, they are used as

secondary data in order to add the information and

support the analysis.

The first step of processing data is reading the

series closely. After reading the series, the writer

analyzes Bella’s characteristics from the dialogues

and narrations provided in the novels. In order to

find out what the readers respond about Bella as a

heroine, the writer looks for the comments on the

internet. By looking at the comments written by the

readers, it can be seen how they respond about Bella

as a heroine. To do the research, the writer of this

present paper uses psychoanalysis theory proposed

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by Jaques Lacan. The theory that the writer chooses

is mirror stage which tells about how human see

their reflections and make their fantasy image. The

writer then analyzes the comments taken from the

internet by using psychoanalysis theory. In order to

enrich the analysis, the writer also adds information

with theories and arguments to support the findings.

1.8.Presentation

This paper is divided into four chapters. The

first chapter introduces the framework of the whole

paper. It contains the writer’s reason in determining

the subject of study, the goal of the research, the

method, the theories which are used to conduct the

study, and the review of some literature works of

The Twilight Saga which have already been done

before. Chapter Two consists of the background

information of the Twilight series while Chapter

Three presents the discussion of Bella Swan as a

popular heroine. The discussion consists of how

Bella’s personality is created and how Bella appeals

the readers. Chapter Four which is the last chapter

presents the conclusion of the paper.