CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Chick-lit: Genre and Its Formula Invention provides the new perception and responds the new information about the world (Cawelti, 1972). Invention provides the new characterization, new plot, new ideas, or linguistic forms. Chick lit is a new invention in literature because it is made from the mixture of several major traditional fictions, like romance, popular romance, and novel of manners (Ferriss & Young, Chick Lit: The New Women's Fiction, 2006). It is a literature about women, especially white women. Chick lit is the new invention in romance literature which it has several different parts from romance. Chick lit brings fresh ideas about women in 21 st Century, as the result of globalization and the spread of popular culture and it is acceptable among women because of its freshness and the female matters content (Smith, 2008). Chick lit is a new genre in women literature which talks about women and their activities. As a new genre, chick lit has its own formula and style. Bridget Jones s Diary is the example of chick lit which can represent the era of 21 st Century, in which it brings the freshness of women matters, such as the activities of women outside the domestic area. Bridget Jones s Diary takes workplace as the setting where Bridget can meet her perfect man. Another chick lit is Suddenly 30, which talks about a girl who wants to be success in 30 years old. However she gets many problems in her workplace and she tries to solve every problem. 17
Chick lit rises as the result of globalization and becomes the product of popular culture. Chick lit brings the symbol of feminism such as the authority of women in political area or in a working place. Through several feminism eras, the literature of women changes from romance to chick lit. Chick lit replaces romance as the best seller novel for women and provides several branches of women literature, such as nanny lit, sistah lit, and assistant lit (Ferriss & Young, Chick Lit: The New Women's Fiction, 2006). Chick lit rises in 2000s, as the new invention in the formula of women novel. It rises to break the formula of marriage-end, the relationship between the aristocracy and the servant, and the old love story which contains intimate relationship between a man and a woman which mostly ended in sex. After 2000s, the new invention of women story changes. It can be seen in the novel, in the movie, or in the characterization of a woman in a story. Chick lit brings the new invention in the terms of literature and replaces the romance novel as a bestseller women novel. Further, chick lit is often raised as a movie which mostly has drama genre. Bridget Jones s Diary, Suddenly 30, and The Devil Wears Prada are the examples of the successful chick lit which is raised into cinema. The formula of chick lit runs around career women on her 20s or 30s years old. Around the age, women concern on their job, dating problems, and living matters. It is how to be a success woman and find their own identity as a powerful woman. Chick lit mostly talks about middle class women and targets the women readers in their 20s or 30s as the escapism of their reality. Not far from the romance genre, chick lit must be written in an interesting way so the women will like to read 18
it. Chick lit is written in an entertaining and interesting way, so the women can deal with it (Ferriss & Young, Chick Lit: The New Women's Fiction, 2006). However, what makes chick lit is different from romance novel is chick lit does not always end in marriage. Although it talks about the relationship between a man and a woman but the woman has something else to do, such as her relationship with the boss, or with her best friend. Most of chick lit theme talk about women struggle for their identity. It is no longer talking about man and marriage. The Confession of Shopaholic is the example of the successful chick lit and finally it was raised to a cinema. It talks about a career woman who has a fight between her identity and her passion in shopping. In order to fulfill her need as a fashionable woman, she needs to buy famous label outfit shoes, handbags, skirts, gloves, scarves and spends more money in it. The problem arises when she does not have money to buy her favorite clothes and she needs to owe credit cards. From the plot, The Confession of Shopaholic tends to teach about consumerism and the capitalism. The issue of consumerism and capitalism can be the example of the new theme in women literature, which it does not only contain the matters of women and love, but also a matter of cultural and social issues. As a new genre, chick lit has its own style. If a romance novel is written in well-ordered grammatical structure, a chick lit is written in a spoken language and sometimes slangs. The words like gimme, gonna can be found in chick lit novel. Gimme is used to replace give me and gonna is used to replace going to. The 19
expression of the main character, swearing words, and emotional attitude is written explicitly in the novel. It seems there is no rule in writing a chick lit and it becomes the freedom of a woman to express everything in chick lit. The writing style of chick lit can also be different as a new genre. Sometimes, chick lit is written with first person point of view as the major character. This becomes one of chick lit styles because the author can disappear into one of the character who tells the story as a major character. Once The Devil Wears Prada became a question among critics and the readers whether The Devil Wears Prada is the real life of Lauren as the author while she works as Anne Wintour s assistant. Because of The Devil Wears Prada is written in a first person point of view, the readers can easily understand how Lauren feels about her boss, because Andrea Sachs was described as a character which full of thought and feelings. By this, it is clearly seen that chick lit can contain the real life of the authors, their ideology, and their thought which can influence the readers to follow what they believe through words and sentences. B. The Devil Wears Prada as a Chick-lit The Devil Wears Prada was written in 2003 and became best seller novel. One of the reasons is because The Devil Wears Prada followed the formula of chick lit as the new literature for women, which are career-driven heroine, an obsession with appearance, and self identity. In her review, Jessica Lynice Hooten agreed that chick lit novel may be worth to buy and read as a popular fiction because it provides escapism and pleasure as watching movie which exposes the 20
problems of modern women (Hooten, 2007). Reading chick lit can be a choice for women who need a place to escape from reality, and by this idea of escapism, while chick lit gives the reader a pleasure, chick lit can influence women by several ideologies within. It is because sometimes the style of chick lit is first person point of view, which is the reader can understand what the author is thinking and feeling. The Devil Wears Prada is a chick lit novel; it talks more about a woman who looked for a job in New York as a journalist. Instead of being a journalist, she became an assistant of the chief editor of a fashion magazine. To fulfill her job, she had to work overtime under the suppression of her boss, Miranda Priestly. Under the circumstances of women s literature, The Devil Wears Prada may give the new plot, characterization, and context of women s novel. The old women s novel is romance. The example of romance novel is the Loveswept collection. Loveswept collection was published around 1990s, whether The Devil Wears Prada was published in 2000s. Loveswept represent the common genre of novel before 2000s, which was romantic or love genre. In the contrary, The Devil Wears Prada represents the turning point of women s literature after 2000s. The Devil Wears Prada and Bridget Jones s Diary were the example of famous chick lit in 2000s, which was the invention in women s literature. The example of new thing from The Devil Wears Prada is the characterization which was a woman who struggled for her job. That invention then becomes the formula in another chick lit novel, such as Nanny Diaries (2002). The invention of women s struggle for everything but love breaks the formula of the romantic formula in women s 21
literature before 2000s. According to Cawelti, the old formula can be broken only with invention (Cawelti, 1972). The invention of career women, job opportunity and fashion acknowledgment breaks the chain of romantic women, marriage, and love orientation. The Devil Wears Prada as a chick lit brings both the new women s literature and the invention in case of content, intrinsic elements, value, problems, and characterization. As an example of chick lit, The Devil Wears Prada brings the new issues and relationship which is the issues of capitalism, consumerism, and hegemony and the relation between the heroine and her boss. It builds the context of career women among the relation of the heroine with her boyfriend. It is Andrea Sachs who tried to seek a job in Elias Clark Publication, and finally met Miranda Priestly, the famous chief editor in Runway Magazine. Her life then was about stunning beauty women, magazine, Starbucks coffee, diet, Miranda s girls, and Calvin Klein. The Devil Wears Prada contains the criticism of the heroine s working condition. According to Ferriss and Young, the formula of The Devil Wears Prada can be a context among chick lit novel is (Ferriss & Young, Chick Lit: The New Women's Fiction, 2006). It is because the heroine tried to have a good relationship between her and her job and her boyfriend, but then she tried to walk away from their job to keep their self-respect to no alternative interpretation. Unlike the romance novel or the previous women literature, The Devil Wears Prada does not end in marriage status. However, in chick lit, there are other problem like jobs, social activities, and money problems which must be solved. For Andrea Sachs, in her age, it was a time 22
to find economic stability and self-determination. She tried to pursue her carrier and her dream of being a journalist. The Devil Wears Prada is a chick lit novel which talks about magazine and women. Since long time ago, the connection between women, magazine, and fiction is closely related. Women issues such as beauty, life, live, are put in the magazine and the writer somehow delivers it through magazine. The Devil Wears Prada talks about women and fashion magazine which really important for career women. However, in this journal, The Devil Wears Prada was written as a semibiographical novel, because it talks about the overtime working of Andrea Sachs which the life story at the job place fits with the writer s story (Lauren s daily life and her relationship with Anne Wintour, a chief editor in Vogue magazine). It is called gossip lit, the new branches of chick lit, considering the contents. In this chick lit, the magazine becomes the important aspect which builds the plot. In this novel, magazine becomes the thing that leads the plot from the start to the end. The magazine makes Miranda Priestly became the famous chief editor in the fashion world, the magazine made Andrea wants to be a journalist, and the magazine showed the famous and up-to-date fashion brand which can delivering consumerism idea to the women. C. The Concept of Hegemony In Pocket-lint, a website about news, Britta O Boyle tells that when technology merges the fashion, it will give luxury (O'Boyle, 2013). The mixture of 23
Prada and Starbucks and Porsche give the sense of luxury and it hegemonize the readers that being fashionable is something good and luxurious. Because of the luxury and goodness of the brands, celebrities in Hollywood also consume it. Celebrities have been become an image for postmodern society and they indirectly spread the ideology of hegemony, which whoever wearing branded outfit, they will be as fashionable as Hollywood stars. It can be said that in hegemony, the interests of the one who has power have been become the interest of the society as a whole (Storey, 2001). The one powerful is the capitalist. The capitalist can control the society by influencing their interest. The process aims to maintain the hegemony itself and the position of the capitalist in the society. However, the capitalist does not straight off dominate the society. The capitalist tries to make a consensus among the society. It aims to make the capitalist interest becomes a normal interest and being acknowledged by other groups. When something seems normal, people will not be suspicious. To make hegemony becomes normal and far from suspicion, the capitalist use some intellectual ways in dominating other groups. In fashion industry, the capitalist also tries to dominate women using the intellectual way. Danielle Barkema says that in the sake of style, women can stand for having foot pain, back pain, and knees pain, because they having higher heels (Barkema, 2013). The women do not recognize the pain, or even if they recognize the pain, they will deny it, because they want to be fashionable. That is one of the intellectual ways from the capitalist to hegemonize women. 24
Hegemony Gramsci s idea about hegemony can be called as ideological domination, which means if an ideology has strong power over the society, then it will dominate the suppressed group and spread its ideology (Gramsci, 1995). The dominant class is held by the capitalist. The capitalist tries to control the system and oppress the powerless society. Women can be categorized as the powerless of society according to the myth of women. The capitalist tries to control women by giving ideologies and images through advertisements, films, video clips, even chick lit novels. Several scientists from several universities have studies that high heels can give women a power to conquer the world. Heels have been a controversial issue since it is the symbol of sexual politics, which means high heels can encourage sexism. Women who wear higher heels can attract men on the street rather than women who do not wear them. The survey told that if a woman wearing heels dropped gloves on the street, she is almost 50 per cent more likely to have a man fetch it for her than if she is wearing flats (Adamson, 2014). It is because heels have powerful effect on men s behavior. Since the 19 th and 20 th century, high heels become the determination of status and wealth. A person with a status and wealth can be referred as well-heeled. Here, the capitalist as if gives the women a power to conquer men through high heels, but what happened actually is they are being commanded to always wearing heels. They are being hegemonized to wear heels so they will have that power, although they have to pay the price on their back pain. The culture of wearing luxury outfit and needs will drive women into consumerism culture. Estiani states in her thesis that magazine can deliver the 25
consumerism culture toward women (Estiani, 2012). Through fashion magazine, women can have a fantasy about trend fashion in the society. Estiani compares the content between women fashion magazine with other science magazine such as National Geography and found that the structure, the content, and the target readers are quite different. Although the dress and other accessories have high prices and most women with average salary cannot buy it, but the magazine is the escapism for them. Estiani clearly defines that through magazine, women are slowly pulled into consumerism, in which Estiani saw that as hegemony. Reading fashion magazine gives certain pleasure to women who read it, without knowing that there might be a hidden meaning behind it. The magazine tries to create a certain image to persuade women and bring women into consumerism and capitalism (Estiani s concern is about magazine s hegemony towards women and the capitalism). William states that hegemony transcends culture and ideology (Williams, 1977, p. 109). Hegemony is the whole practices and expectations of the ideology and culture, including the domination and subordination, and also the experience of meanings and values in the society. In other words, hegemony is organized complicated processes which cannot be understood in an abstraction. Hegemony must be studied carefully through the experiences, expectations, and practices. Because of the complexity, hegemony makes society is difficult to change. D. Women and Fashion Barthes stated that fashion brings the concept of aesthetic, psychological motivation, and institution identity (Barthes, 2006). Like Britta O Boyle s article, 26
that when fashion meets technology, it can create luxury and modernity (O'Boyle, 2013). Nowadays, fashion is not only dress and blouse, but it reaches the accessories such as purse, pouch, earphone, scarves, or even hand phone. The luxurious objects can also car and other invention in technology. David Koma, a costume designer of Rihanna and Beyonce were working together with HTC to make a mini HTC with a limited edition. LG and Prada also combine their work by producing a smart phone with limited editions. Further, Porsche and BlackBerry make a smart phone with gold color and titanium layer and also gold and only produce it 25 around the world (O'Boyle, 2013). The price of all those items is quite expensive, but they make it by considering the luxury and the aesthetic value of the product, which can make the buyers, feel pride. Psychologically, the buyers will be motivated to buy them, because the feedback that they get is the pride and stylish. Further, it gives them their own identity as prominent people, such as celebrities. Fashion was first brought by the aristocratic and became the spirit of the certain era (Barthes, 2006). The fashion consumption by the aristocratic became the image of the perfect fashion and the aristocratic became the leader to bring the image of true fashion in the society. The aristocrat s fashion became the image of true fashion which was used by the society. Fashion has been changed and developed to follow the era. However, the pioneer of what is being trend in fashion world is still the aristocrat itself, in this case, the designers. The aristocrat is no longer the queen and the king or the president and the wife, but the trend maker the designer who will design certain model and prominent and famous people will 27
consume it. Later rich people will follow them and creates the popular mode in the society. The society which cannot fully follow them will make imitations of their product and design in order to be resembled with them. It happens because the brands which are being used by those prominent people show their identity. The identity becomes the image which the society wants to fulfill. Thus, the brand has the significant role in shaping the society. Fashion has language which can be analyzed through its appearance. Barthes took one example that if a woman wore sweater, silk, white color, and square-necked, the woman could be categorized as a smart woman. It is because those four symbols sweater, silk, white, square-necked are the signifier of smartness (Barthes, 2006). According to Barthes, the appearance determines the category of the consumer. In 2013, Oscar de la Renta, a famous designer from America, criticized Michelle Obama s fashion choice when she was attending the Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/de-la-renta-dressing-lady-not-toppriority-article-1.1298433). Oscar de la Renta previously turned up his nose at the cardigan Michelle Obama wore to meet Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace. De la Renta says that, an anonymous woman on the street is the woman who influences fashion today, not a movie star or a first lady. (The Associated Press, 2013) De la Renta is a favorite fashion designer in U.S. and Hillary Clinton in one of the adorer. From his statement, it is seen that the identity and the fashion makes 28
the woman will looked differently. Fashion is significant for woman and so does the brand. People will recognize what the brand consumer is doing and interpret it properly. Brand establishes the consumer as creditable. Karacan also agreed and said that fashion becomes the certain identity for someone (Karacan, 2007, p. 2). Fashion is a sign for certain gender, certain identity, certain social status, and certain class. The function of fashion extends from necessity and protector from nature becomes a tool to show the wearers characters to construct their images. Fashion is also the visible signs which define one s position in the society (Karacan, 2007, pp. 13-14). Fashion becomes the system of signs. It means that fashion is one of somebody s identity signifiers. For women, identity is not enough with name card, ID card, or job status. They need the identity of beauty and community to construct their image. Women in the workplace will construct their identity as success career women by wearing luxurious and branded dress. People will define them as success women and the definition will influence their status in the society. There is a narration of the best and the worst fashion ever. Madeleine Vionnet, a designer, designed a perfect look (according to the web) because Vionnet brings the sensation of 1920s, by delivering Grecian draping style (http://www.glamour.com/fashion/2010/02/the-best-and-worst-fashion-trendsever/1). It is a deconstructive style which shows the beauty and strength of women. Further, Vionnet caught the theme of 1920, where women struggled for their equality after men to vote (the first women movement). Natalie Hormilla wrote on 29
the website, that corsets had been the worst fashion ever, because it constricted women s body tightly so they cannot breathe. The use of corsets had been popular in 16 th but not in 21 st Century. It impacts badly on women s internal organs because of the strict and the material (it is made by iron). Barthes stated that fashion magazine is one of systems which are used to spread fashion and its meaning (Barthes, 2006). It is because the capitalist tries to influence women by using beautiful models who wearing beautiful fashion. The fashion is not only the dress and the blouse, but also the jewelries, the accessories, the bracelets, necklaces, shoes, and bags. According to Barthes, fashion also represents the spirit of certain era (Barthes, 2006). The attributes, material, type, and model will always change according to the era. For example, Victorian era had a long and wide skirt. At that time, women had to cover their sleeves and feet. After 20 th Century, the skirt moves to short and narrow one. Women tend to wear short sleeves and short dress. It is because the changing era means the changing model of fashion, because the fashion represents the spirit of the era. The era after 20 th Century is the era when women struggle for their freedom and they want to show their voice and skill, so the cut their skirt and sleeves as the representation that they can do more with their hands and walk more with their feet. Barthes also stated that women suit (color, accessory, and material) can be a signifier of something (Barthes, 2006). For example, in facing the spring season, fashion industries prepare to produce attributes in blue color. For winter, the industries will produce feather coat in brown. However, the model and type will be 30
different from time to time. A coat model for winter in 2003 will be different from a coat model for winter in 2004. Although the time gap is only a year, but the capitalist will not allow the women to wear the same coat. They will produce the latest model of a winter coat to attract the women so they will buy the product, even the function of the coat is still the same. The signifier does not only come from the color, but also from material. For example, if a woman wants to be considered as smart, she can wear a white sweater made from silk. It is because white and silk is the signifier of smartness. Brand will not be working without women. It makes the relationship between women and brands cannot be separated. The relationship between them creates the identity towards women and fashion, such as the identity of stylish women. Brand determines the identity by showing its credibility and the exposure of the prominent role in the society. That s why brand is significant fashion development and women identity. Designer will create something new for fashion development making new invention or new design in certain period and the system will make the identity of women who consume the product keep steady as the fashionable and stylish women based on brands. 31