CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the Study The term literature has been widely known by many people in the world. The term literature is derived from Latin littera which means letter. It refers to the written or printed words, but literary also can be oral. According to Rhicard Taylor (1981:1), literature like the other arts, is essentially an imaginative act, that is an act of writer s imagination in selecting, ordering and interpreting life experience. Literature can be treated as a document in the history of ideas and philosophy, for literary history parallels and reflect intelectual history. Novel is a part of fiction, which appeared in the 18th century as the further development of Medieval romances. It is kind of prose writing which is very popular in the society. Its complicated intrique but easy to be read is the main point for its readers to choose a reading in their leisure time. According to Richard Taylor (1981:46), a novel is normally a prose work of quite some length and complecity which attempts to reflect and express something of the equality value of human experience or conduct. A novel is considered as literary work. In Dictionary of Etimology, the Origins of American English Words by Robert K. Barnhart (1995), the word novel itself comes from Latin novella which means something new. Ian Watt in his book The Rise of the Novel (1995) describes the background of the rise of the novel. In the 18th century some English writers tried to create literary works that did not follow the traditional ways of writing prose.
The Taqwacores is a novel written by Michael Muhammad Knight in 2003. In this thesis, the writer is going to analyze this novel, which presents story of a Muslim punk house in Buffalo, New York, inhabited by burqa-wearing riot girls, mohawked Sufis, straightedge Sunnis, Shi a skinheads, Indonesian skaters, Sudanese rude boys, gay Muslims, drunk Muslims, and feminists. Their living room is often used to hold parties and prays, with a hole smashed in the wall to indicate the direction of Mecca (kiblah). Their life together mixes sex, dope, and religion in roughly equal amounts, expressed in devotion to an Islamic-punk subculture, taqwacore, named for taqwa, an Arabic term for consciousness of the divine. The taqwacores is story about Yusef, a first-generation Pakistani engineering student who moves to campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, New York. His new "un-orthodox" house mates introduce him to Taqwacore. As the seasons change, Taqwacore influences the house more and more. The living room used as a place to pray during the day, and a place to hold a party at night. Ultimately, Yusef is influenced by Taqwacore too, as he begins to challenge his own faith and ideologies. The Taqwacores deals with the complexities of being young and Muslim in modern-day America. The central conflict of the novel is the clash between these differences take on Islam. One side of this is represented by Jehangir, Rabeya, Fasiq, Muzammil, their friends, and later the taqwacore bands, who know that in many different ways they are outsiders to Islam, but have developed their own philosophies on the subject. The contrasting perspective is provided by Umar, Yusef s own doubts about his religion, the occasional appearance or mention of parents and traditional imams (leaders of the prayer; possibly the closest Islam has to religious leaders), and the ultra-fundamentalist band Bilal's Boulder
The conflict and philosophies of the novel are more simply defined as inclusiveness versus exclusiveness. Umar, Bilal s Boulder, and the more traditional values they espouse, reject what they see as characteristic of kufr (an unbeliever or atheist), homosexuality, drink, drugs, sex, failure to observe certain traditions, and so on. They demand a specific adherence to Islamic teachings. Michael Muhammad Knight born in 1977 is an American novelist, essayist, and journalist. His writings mostly talk about elements of islamic liberalism. Islamic liberalism is reflected in the characters of his last novel The Taqwacores. Specialist in Islamic studies at University of North Carolina, called The Taqwacores as "Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims. The novel has been taught in courses at Kenyon College, Vassar College, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Trinity College, Sarah Lawrence College, Canisius College, Indiana University, and the Ohio State University. In Charles Kurzman s book Liberal Islam (1998:1), Liberal Islam may sound like a contradiction in terms. For centuries, the west has identified islam with its most exotic elements. But, Kurzman also does not explain in detail what is meant by a liberal Islam. Adian Husaini and Nuim Hidayat in their book, Islam Liberal : Sejarah, Konsepsi, Penyimpangan, dan Jawabannya (2002:3) state :...islam liberal sebenarnya "tidak beda" dengan gagasan islam yang dikembangkan Nurcholish Madjid dan kelompoknya. Yaitu, kelompok islam yang tidak setuju dengan pemberlakuan syariat islam (secara formal oleh negara), kelompok getol yang memperjuangkan sekularisasi, emansipasi wanita, menyamakan agama islam dengan agama lain (pluralisme teologis), dan memperjuangkan demokrasi Barat...actually liberal Islam is not different with the idea of Islam that developed by Nurcholish Madjid and his group. That is, the Islamic group that does not agree with the enforcement of Shariah law (formally by the
state), the industrious group who fight for secularization, emancipation of women, theological pluralism, and fighting for the Western democracies. In this research, some terminologies which are related to the title, are explained by giving precise definition and interpretation. It helps to avoid misunderstandings and ambiguities. It is also expected to assist the writer in analyzing of the problems that have been determined in this thesis. This analysis is related to the current times, especially in the fields of philosophy, science, art and culture. Humans are not satisfied with the progress of science and the way of modern thinking. Modernism is considered obsolete and should be replaced with a new paradigm called postmodernism. Postmodernism allows humans to live more freely. Postmodernism is closely related to the sociology of literature, sociological approach greatly considered in the era of postmodernism. Basic of philosophical sociological approach is the intrinsic relationship between literature and society. In the final decades of the twentieth century and even into the new millennium, the term "postmodern" has appeared to be more casually bandied about than carefully defined. For some it is a mere 'moment', while for others it is a more general 'condition'. Some denigrates it to just a 'style'; still others elevates it to a historical 'period'. Literature, the visual arts (especially photography), dance, film, theatre and music (classical and popular) all define their own postmodernism, as do philosophy, sociology, historiography, psycoanalysis and theology. This moves from the realm of the arts into what the French call the "human sciences" is inevitable, given the very close connections between theory and practice in the postmodern. As we shall see, the impulse of postmodern art both to exploit and then to undermine the conventions upon which it is depended from formalism (or a concern for artistic form) to mimesis (with a focus on the imitation of nature or life) is matched by the urge of poststructuralist theory to call attention to and then deconstruct our unexamined assumptions about basic things like meaning in language
or even human identity. Art and theory clearly have overlapping concerns an at least one common method of operation: that is, looking for and then exposing contradictions in what appeared at first to be totally unproblematic, coherent and unified whole. In a sense, the conflation of theory and practice came about because of shared responses to common provocations. The way of Michael Muhammad Knight applies the islamic liberalism in this novel through the characters fascinated the writer to do a research. In this thesis, the writer wants to conduct an analysis of how the islamic liberalism is reflected in the characters of the novel The Taqwacores. This topic is important to be discussed, because it is a new issue in literary work that contained religious teaching, especially about islamic liberalism. The community in this novel, practise islamic teaching but not the real ones. The deviation of religious teachings contained in this novel interests the writer want to analyze the characteristics of islamic liberalism. The writer uses the Hermeneutical Interpretation theory in doing the analysis. One of the most popular proposers of this theory is Gadamer. Reveal, explain, and translate is the system of analysis in hermeneutics. Therefore literary criticism also applies this theory as a guide to analyze literary works. 1.2. Problem of the Study It is important to make the specification of problems which are going to be analyzed. It helps to avoid the ambiguity of the analysis and get the clear description about the object of the analysis itself. So in this thesis the writer decides some problems that will be analyzed. They are:
1. What are the characteristics of islamic liberalism which reflected in Michael Muhammad Knight s The Taqwacores? 2. How is the life of the community with the ideology in Michael Muhammad Knight s The Taqwacores? 1.3. Objective of the Study The objectives of the study are to answer the questions or the problems of the study. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis are: 1. To describe the characteristics of islamic liberalism which reflected in Michael Muhammad Knight s The Taqwacores. 2. To describe the lives of the community with the ideology in Michael Muhammad Knight s The Taqwacores. 1.4. Scope of the Study Generally, Islamic Liberalism can also be found in many fields of knowledge as philosophy, literary works, religion, and science. In order to avoid wider analysis, the writer will focus on Islamic Liberalism in literary works, especially in characters of a novel. In this thesis, the writer would like to analyze the characteristics of islamic liberalism which reflected in The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight. The writer will only focus the analysis on two characteristics of Islamic Liberalism, they are : Believing that truth is relative, open for interpretations and plural and Believing in the freedom to practice religious beliefs.
1.5. Significance of the Study This study is expected to provide some significances for the reader as it hopefully can be used : 1. To contribute reading material or information about islamic liberalism particularly for students who are interested with the same subject. 2. To enrich the knowledge in literary study especially about Michael Muhammad Knight s work. 1.6. Method of the Study The writer uses the library research and the descriptive method. Library research means the data analysis are based on books or references that are related to the study of literary works in terms of novel and the characteristics of Islamic Liberalism. Descriptive method is a method of analysis by describing and analyzing the data and then giving interpretation and explanation. However, to support the analysis, the writer has to collect some other sources as the references. There are some steps in preparing this thesis. First, the writer reads the novel over and over. Then the writer gets down some relevant lines which are related to the problems and present them in a form of quotation as the data. 1.7. Review of Literature In supporting the idea of this analysis, some relevant books and thesis have been collected. All these books have given contribution in writing this thesis. Some definitions, opinions, and findings from relevant books and thesis are quoted as follows: 1. Theory of Literature (1965) by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren. It contains the theory of literature. The book helps the writer to know more about theory of literature. According
to the book, there are two approaches in analyzing literary works; they are intrinsic and extrinsic approach. Intrinsic approach emphasizes its analysis on texts of literary works, while on the other hand, extrinsic approach related to the literary works and the other subjects such as biography, philosophy, sociology, etc. This book also explains about idea that related to the topic. 2. Literature: An Introducing to Reading and Writing (1955, Fourth Edition) by Edgar Roberts and Henry E. Jacob. This book is about kinds of literature. The book also helps the writer how to read and write this thesis well. 3. Liberal Islam : A Sourcebook (1998) by Charles Kurzman. This book discusses about the islamic liberalism. From the book the writer knows more about islamic liberalism. 4. Islam Liberal : Sejarah, Konsepsi, Penyimpangan, dan Jawabannya (2002) by Adian Husaini M.A. and Nuim Hidayat. This book contains all about Islamic liberalism. It helps the writer how to understand more about islamic liberalism. 5. Islam Liberal 101 (2010) by Akmal Sjafril. This book is about kinds of Islamic liberalism and its development. It helps the writer to understand about islamic liberalism and its characteristics. 6. The Routledge Companion To Critical Theory (2006) by Simon Malpas and Paul Wake. This book is about critical theory. It helps me to understand about postmodernism. 7. The Taqwacores (2004) by Michael Muhammad Knight. This novel is the main object of this thesis. Toward this novel Knight portray the Liberalism in Islam. This novel is the main source of data. 8. Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra (2004) by DR. Nyoman Kutha Ratna. This book explains briefly the method to analyze a literary work specially fiction. In this book,
the author explains how to analyze plot, character, setting, point of view, style and theme as the literary element. The writer uses this book as the guidebook in analyzing.