A Synopsis
on
“AGGRESSION IN KHALED HOSSEINI'S NOVEL A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS”
Introduction
Aggression is most frequently
defined as a manner in social psychology; which is projected to harm another
person, who is motivated to avoid that harm. This type of harm can take many
forms "physical injury, hurt feelings, or damaged social
relationships"
Spousal
violence is a problem that is deep-rooted in many societies around the world.
Research related to this field shows that "such type of violence is
remained a hidden and persistent problem even though societal awareness and
condemnation of the issue has increased"
When we raise a question, "'Who are the victims of spousal
violence?', even if there are some studies that imply men and women are both
capable of violence, female victims suffer more physically, emotionally and
financially from abuse. While the majority of men are not violent, some men
have learned to express their anger or insecurity through violence"
"Literature is simply
another way we can experience the world around us through our imagination"
While
dealing with literary criticism, we also know about psychological criticism
that is portion of our soul to express our sentiments. Psychological criticism
is the application of psychoanalysis within literature. In addition, critics
use "psychological criticism to explore the motivations of characters and
the symbolic meanings of events, while biographers speculate about a writer's
own motivations"
General
objective
The
over-all aim of this research is to identify and describe aggression and
discrimination in Khaled Hosseini's A
Thousand Splendid Suns.
The specific objectives of this
research are described as:
·
To identify different kinds of aggression
in Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand
Splendid Suns.
·
To describe aggression in Khaled
Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.
·
To assess domestic violence in Khaled
Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.
·
To test the application of Frustration
Aggression Hypothesis in Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Statement
of Problem
Based on the above research
background, research problems of this study are as follows:
·
What kinds of aggression are found in Khaled
Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns?
·
How are the different kinds of aggression
described in A Thousand Splendid Suns?
·
What kinds of domestic violence are faced
by women characters in A Thousand
Splendid Suns?
·
How are the aggressions in domestic
violence explained based on frustration-aggression hypothesis in A Thousand
Splendid Suns ?
Significance
of the study
On
the one hand, by doing this study, the researcher assumes that it will give
useful contribution for developing knowledge on aggression and literary
analysis. Theoretically, this research is aimed to enrich the theoretical basis
of literary studies. In addition, it will make the readers or the next
researcher have well understanding about aggression and its application in
literary work, moreover in Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. Furthermore, violence is one form of
aggressions of social psychology as one of literary criticism which can also be
applied in several side of life.
Similarly,
the
result of this study is expected to be a reference and alternative information
for other researchers to enrich their knowledge with similar research. For
other researchers, it is hoped that this study might help them to learn how to
analyse fiction especially about violence and aggression on literary work.
However, this study still needs to be followed and completed by other
researcher with the same subject or object of the study.
Literature Review
Literature
and psychology are interrelated and cannot be separated, because psychology is
a part of literature, they support and influence each other. Learning
psychology means an effect to learn the understanding of individuality and its
aspects to understand another person who has a unique and specific attitude,
which differentiate him or her from the other
"In social psychology, aggression
is most commonly defined as a: (1) behaviour, (2) that is intended to harm
another person, (3) who is motivated to avoid that harm"
There
are different factors that cause human aggression: environmental, social,
learning, etc. Aggression is not variable which emerges incidentally or
automatically. The cause factors of behavioural appearance of aggression are
frustration, stress, compliance and power, attendance of weapon, provocation,
alcohol and drugs, and air temperature.
A large proportion of previous research into bullying and aggression for
example,
Moreover,
Björkqvist, Lagerspetz, and Kaukiainen
Frustration-Aggression
Hypothesis
Violence
and aggression have quite close relationship and become part of daily life.
Harris, Gergen and Lannaman in Andris’s thesis (2006: 4) as presented in Hocker
Wilmot believe that violence is related to increase in verbal aggressiveness.
It appears that violence occurs when a person’s goal attainment is blocked (the
frustration-aggression hypothesis), and the end result from increase in verbal
aggressive-part of an “aggression ritual”.
Frustration
is external obstacles that obscure someone’s target. The experience of
frustration can arise of desires to do aggressive that are cause of
frustration. Aggression can arise or not, as reaction of frustration is depend
on influence connection variable, that is anxious toward punishment because
doing aggression, or nothing existence is cause of frustration as factor that
can aggression not arise. While, Baron
and Robert (1977: 449) say that frustration is the blocking of ongoing,
goal-directed behaviour, it has long been held to be one of the major elicitors
of aggression, but recent findings suggest that it may play a smaller role in
this respect that was previously suspected.
Research Methodology
The Research Design
Research
design comprises identifying participants for the research, and preparing for
data collection activities, which are part of the whole research process. Thus,
this study adopted a qualitative research design. This study is a descriptive
qualitative research. Creswell
The Data and the Source of Data
Vanderstoep
and Johnston (2009:7) state that the data of qualitative research are described
in a narrative fashion rather than in the forms of number. Since this research
is qualitative, the data were the expressions taken from a novel entitled A Thousand Splendid Suns. The data were
related to: (i) kinds of aggression that were found in the novel and (ii)
application of frustration-aggression hypothesis.
A Thousand Splendid Suns was written by
Khaled Hosseini, which was published for the first time in 2007 by Riverhead
Books. Its epic story has made it gain popularity among people around the world
and in 2008 Bloomsbury Publishing published it again in paperback version. The
novel has 432 pages that are divided into four parts and fifty-one chapters.
Part one, which consists of chapter 1-15, tells about Nana and Mariam, part two
which is from chapter 16 to 26 focuses on Laila, part three with chapter 27 to
47 tells about Mariam and Laila, and part four which is from chapter 48 to 51
has Laila as its heroine.
In
this study, the researcher also used some books, journals, and websites, which
dealt with feminism and gender discrimination. Those resources were taken to
enrich the researcher's knowledge and comprehension in conducting this
study.
Research Instruments
The
primary instrument in analysing the data was the researcher himself, as
Creswell
The Technique of Data Collection
In
this study, the researcher used the technique of analysis of documents and
material culture since the source of the data was a written text
To
obtain the necessary data, the researcher also took notes and highlighted the
data, which were related to aggression and types of it. The data, which had
been gathered through note taking process, were interpreted using lens of
aggression.
Finally,
the data were categorized into the units, which were relevant with (i) kinds of
aggression, which were faced by the women in A Thousand Splendid Suns
and (ii) the application of frustration-aggression theory used in the novel.
The researcher wrote the categorized data in a table of data collection and
classification. The researcher marked some sentences bold, which support and
emphasize the categories he made to ease the analysing process.
The Technique of Data Analysis
Kothari
According
to Creswell
1. First, the
researcher identified the data that were taken from the novel by making some
notes.
2. Second, the
researcher read and re-read the whole data and arranging them into two major
topics under the study. The first analysis was exploration of aggression and
the second analysis was kinds of aggression.
3. Third, the
researcher categorized the data into thematic categories related to aggression
and the kinds of aggression.
4. Fourth, the
researcher sorted the data to get the more relevant data. Thus, the irrelevant
data were excluded.
5. Fifth, the
data analysis process moved towards the process of making interrelation between
the description of the data and the theories to get findings based on the objectives
of the research: to explore aggression and kinds of aggression in Hosseini's A
Thousand Splendid Suns.
6. Sixth, the
researcher engaged in making interpretation of the findings based on his
comprehension about the theories, which were used.
The Trustworthiness of the Data
According
to Creswell
Transferability
refers to the applicability of the research to the different contexts (broad or
narrow). In this way, a study is not deemed unworthy if it cannot be applied to
broader contexts; instead, a study's worthiness is determined by how well
others can determine to which alternative contexts the findings might be
applied. To prove the transferability, the researcher provided the rich, thick
description to enable the readers to transfer information to other settings and
to determine whether the findings can be transferred because of shared
characteristics.
Conformability
deals with the accuracy of the researcher in conceptualizing the study. The
interpretations and findings of a study should match the data. Meanwhile, dependability
refers to the idea that if the other researchers collect data in similar
conditions, a similar explanation for the phenomenon should be found. Both
conformability and dependability in this study was achieved by reading the data
comprehensively and rechecking it carefully.
Credibility
is a concept of internal validity of the findings. A credible study is one
where the researchers have accurately and richly described the phenomenon in
question. To provide corroborating evidence and prove the credibility of the
study, the researcher employed triangulation method. According to Kothari
In
this research, the researcher engaged multiple and different theories and
methods. To collect the data, the researcher conducted multiple techniques,
which were reading and note taking. The theory applied in this study was not
only frustration-aggression, but also some other supporting theories related to
aggression.
Investigator
triangulation was employed to prove the trustworthiness of this study. The
research consultation was conducted with his advisor who is competent in the
study of literature. In completing triangulation techniques, the researcher
also made a discussion with two peer-reviewers.
To
increase the credibility of the research findings, the researcher also
conducted multiple and data sources triangulation by gathering evidence taken
from a variety of data sources such as books, theses, journals and websites
which were related to her research matter. Each type of source of data
strengthened the evidence and gave different insights regarding the phenomena
under study.
Chapter Plan
I
am planning to complete my dissertation on the proposed format of following
chapter division.
Chapter – I
This chapter is introductory
chapter. It consists of nine subdivisions, namely, background of the study, statement of
problem, significance of the study, objectives, philosophical worldviews,
theoretical framework, definition of key terms, delimitations and limitations
of study, and chapter plan.
Chapter – II
This chapter deals on literature
review.
Chapter – III
This chapter will deal methodology.
Chapter- IV
This
chapter will deal on analysis of data.
Chapter – V
This chapter will be about
conclusion and recommendations.
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