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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.