Female Subjectivity in Mohja Kafh’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

Abstract

. The feminist movements have echoed the spirit of gender equality in many aspects, politics, education, economic, social, and culture. However, some restrictions of women’s freedom in voicing their thoughts still exist. Women have to struggle in both domestic and public domains. Women have limited access in improving their capacities. This is related to the patriarchal system which put women at a disadvantage. Some deep- rooted patriarchal systems include discrimination against women, marginalization of women and subordination of women. These problems lead to women’s effort living under patriarchal system. The spirit in achieving gender equality is expressed through the behaviors, attitudes and ways of thinking which is called as female subjectivity. The issue of how female subjectivity plays an important role in responding to the patriarchal system is depicted in many media including fiction and non-fiction. This article is aimed at scrutinizing the problem of female subjectivity in a literary work, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, a novel written by Mohja Kafh. This novel presents the life of a female character struggling in voicing her thoughts and responses to patriarchal system. The complexity of the main female character’s life and experience is analyzed through the lens of feminism and subjectivity as well as the socio-cultural context. The spirit of feminism is exposing the unvoiced women’s experience. The thoughts of scholars on patriarchy and feminism are the main theories in analyzing the issue of female subjectivity in the novel. In conducting this research, qualitative method is the main method. There are three steps of this method. The first step is focusing on the quotations from the novel showing the issue of female subjectivity. The second step refers to how the selected data is scrutinized through the lens of related theories. The last one is presenting the result based on the objectives of the research. This study reveals two points. First, patriarchy as the cause of main female character‘s subjectivity. Patriarchy is imposed by her family (parents and husband). Second, the main female character’s responses to patriarchy as the forms of her subjectivity. The main female character maximizes her role in demonstrating her subjectivity. The efforts of the main female character in presenting her subjectivity bring about some consequences. In this case, the consequences are related to the main female character’s decisions. This article also demonstrates how the main female character shows her struggle in expressing her subjectivity through two ways, resistance and negotiation within the patriarchal system. The ways result in many forms of responses. The female character experiences support as well as challenges from the people around her. The challenges result from the dominance of patriarchy exerted by the family members. In addition, American situation as the contextual background also influence the ways the main female character shows her subjectivity. In this sense, the complexities of the background affect the main female character’s subjectivity. From these points, the study argues that the female character shows the dynamic and unfinished formation of female character’s subjectivity where the patriarchal system can be challenged.