THE DIFFERENCE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIETY ON GEISHA IN THE

ORIGINAL AND TODAY’S POINT OF VIEW BASED ON THE NOVEL

OF MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA BY ARTHUR GOLDEN

A Prospectus

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements to finish the final assignment of

Research Method Course

Written by
Sherlyta Christy
Student Number: 171214102

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2020
 INTRODUCTION

A. RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Society is a large, big, huge, permanent, or a group of people who share certain
interest, beliefs and values. There are two kinds of scale of society, large and small. For
example, a large scale of society is a nation and the small scale of society is a family. The
concept of society is a branch of science from sociology. Sociology has been to
conceptualize society as a system, focusing on the bounded and integrated nature of
society.

According to Doda (2005: 62) “society is derived from a Latin word socius. The term
directly means association, togetherness, gregariousness, or simply group life. The
concept of society refers to a relatively large grouping or collectivity of people who share
more or less common and distinct culture, occupying a certain geographical locality, with
the feeling of identity or belongingness, having all the necessary social arrangements or
insinuations to sustain itself. Doda argues that society also may mean a certain population
group, a community. A society is an autonomous grouping of people who inhabit a
common territory, have a common culture (shared set of values, beliefs, customs and so
forth) and are linked to one another through routinized social interactions and
interdependent statuses and roles (Calhoun et al 1994).

Perspective is the way people see something. Perspective has a Latin root meaning
“look through” or “perceive”, and all the meanings of perspective have something to do
with looking it. For example, if people observe the world from a dog’s perspective,
people see through the dog’s eye. According to Berger (cites Robertson 1981), society
perspective or sociological perspective invites people to look at people familiar
surroundings in a fresh way. It encourages people to take a new look at the world people
have always taken for granted, to examine people social environment with the same
curiosity that people might bring to an exotic foreign culture.

According to Klarer (2004:1) literature is referred to as the entirety of written

expression, with the restriction that not every written document can be categorized as
literature in the more exact sense of the wolrd. Another expert Wellek and Warren
(1963:22) says that the term of literature seems best if people limit it to the art of
literature, that is to imaginative literature. Literature is also produced by imagination of
the author. Literature is not just a document of facts, it is not just the collection of real
events though it may happen in the real life. Literature can create its own world as a
product of the unlimited imagination. The form of literature can a novel, short story,
poerty, drama, that serves a real life values such as ambition, love, moral, history,
religion, and culture.

Reading English novel is interesting. By reading English novels people can improve
English ability and also can learn about literature. Studying literature makes readers
know, aware, and realize the problems in real life and can change the readers perspective
in looking at around or the world. By reading a literature people can also learn about
other culture that might be not exist in the countries or just exist in another countries.
Every countries’ in the world has a different culture and custom. For example, Indonesia
is a big country that has a lot ‘of cultures and custom which is has a difference ‘with
another island or city. Moreover, another country also has their own culture and custom,
like Japan. As a monarchy, Japanese society also has a custom that they cherish from
their ancestors. The cultures and customs in Indonesia and Japan are so different, so that
we can learn the culture and custom from both countries.

Now, there are various novels and films that reflect cultures of societies and nations.
One of them is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (born in 1956 in Chattanooga,
Tennessee) is the writer of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha. This novel released
in 1997 and it took two years on the New York Times bestseller list. The novel has sold
more than four million copies in English and has been translated into thirty-two languages
around the world. In 2005, Memoirs of a Geisha was made into a movie, directed by Rob
Marshall and Ziyi Zhang and Ken Watanabe as the actress.

After reading the novel and watching the film Memoirs of a Geisha the writer learns
new cultures. They are Japanese culture and Geisha. Geisha only exist in Japan and
become a part of Japanese culture.

In this prospectus, there are some reasons why the writer chooses Memoirs of a
Geisha as the topic of the study. The storyline that serves in Memoirs of a Geisha is
interesting. The story talk about the long journey of geisha, how can they become a
geisha, what should they do before become a geisha, and what should they do after
become a geisha. Another reason is the writer wants to know about the history of geisha,
why geisha’s job appears, and what people perspective about geisha based on the novel.

The writer thinks that this story is very unique and interesting especially talk about
Geisha. Although the novel talk about Geisha’s life, there is society perspective about
Geisha. The challenge is to discuss people perspective about geisha, especially people
perspective in the old era based on the novel with people perspective nowadays.

B. RESEARCH QUESTION(S)

In analyzing the problem, writer has the research question as follows:

1. Who are the main characters as geisha in the novel?

2. How does people’s perspective about geisha in Arthur Goldens’ Memoirs of a

Geisha?

3. How does people’s perspective about geisha nowadays?

4. What are the differences between people’s perspective based on the novel
Memoirs of a Geisha with people’s perspective nowadays?
 THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. DEFINITION OF GEISHA

Geisha means an artist in Japanese. It comes from Japanese characters gei 芸 which
has a meaning “art” and sha 者 means “person” so the word geisha literally means “ artist,
performing artist, or person of the art”. Geisha is a professional hostess who entertains
guest trough various performing arts and they live in a dormitory called okiya. Geisha
also known as geigi or geiko. They have skill in classical dancing, singing, playing a
banjo- like stringed instrument called the shamisen and wity conversation to entertain the
guest or clients (Perkins,1991:111).

B. THE HISTORY OF GEISHA

The history of geisha began during the Japanese Renaissance when the class system
that previously governed Japan was being turned on its head. During this time, the first of
the pleasure quarters, called Yanagimichi, was built by a man with an entrepreneurial
spirit named Hideyoshi Toytomi. Before the Renaissance, the samurai had been directly
under the shogun, and they still were, but they were forbidden from retaining other
employments and as a result, they were struggling survive on their stipend. They should
borrow the money to the money lenders (Lockard,2009:3).

To sum up, geisha appears because of the low economical condition that make a
family should sell or ask their children especially the girl to become an artist. The purpose
to pay the debt but their children will be treated good as they grew older. They will learn
many things so they can perform it in front of the guest. At the same time, there is an
assumption that a person reached sexual maturity around the age of thirteen and at this
point an apprentice was expected to accept a rite of passage called mizuage. After a
several times, this habit become a pleasure called pleasure quarter. The success of this
pleasure quarter was because of unmarried merchants and tradesmen from Kyoto and
Osaka, and unmarried samurai who on the stipend provided to them by their employers,
could not begin or support a family. Yanagimichi not only offering sex, but also
entertainment such as kabuki, shrine dancing, wrestling, and singing. As a result of these
diverse offering Yoshirawa was “far larger than the country’s other famous pleasure
quarters”. A woman who was not not a caged bird, who dressed with understated
sophistication, not showy glitter, and who sold not her body, but her arts. This was the
foundation of the geisha (Lockard,2009:4-6)

C. SOCIETY

Society is a large, big, huge, permanent, or a group of people who share

certain interest, beliefs and values. There are two kinds of scale of society, large and
small. For example, a large scale of society is a nation and the small scale of society is
a family. The concept of society is a branch of science from sociology. Sociology has
been to conceptualize society as a system, focusing on the bounded and integrated
nature of society.

According to Doda (2005: 62) “society is derived from a Latin word socius. The
term directly means association, togetherness, gregariousness, or simply group life.
The concept of society refers to a relatively large grouping or collectivity of people
who share more or less common and distinct culture, occupying a certain
geographical locality, with the feeling of identity or belongingness, having all the
necessary social arrangements or insinuations to sustain itself. Doda argues that
society also may mean a certain population group, a community. A society is an
autonomous grouping of people who inhabit a common territory, have a common
culture (shared set of values, beliefs, customs and so forth) and are linked to one
another through routinized social interactions and interdependent statuses and roles
(Calhoun et al 1994).

D. PERSPECTIVE

Perspective is the way people see something. Perspective has a Latin root meaning
“look through” or “perceive”, and all the meanings of perspective have something to
do with looking it. For example, if people observe the world from a dog’s perspective,
people see through the dog’s eye. According to Berger (cites Robertson 1981), society
perspective or sociological perspective invites people to look at people familiar
surroundings in a fresh way. It encourages people to take a new look at the world
people have always taken for granted, to examine people social environment with the
same curiosity that people might bring to an exotic foreign culture.

RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN

A. RESEARCH METHOD

The writer used research method such as: research design, data sources, data
collection and data analysis, survey.

B. RESEARCH DESIGN

The writer uses literary criticism as her research design because literary
criticism is usually regarded as the analysis, interpretation and evaluation on the
literary works. Besides, literary criticism is the only research design that is directly
related to the literary work (Rose,1968).
The writer uses sociological literary criticism, social psychology and survey to
analyze the differences society perspective in Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur
Goldens’ because social psychology will be uses to analyze the perspective on the
novel and the survey to get know people perspective nowadays.
 REFERENCES

Beger, Peter. Geneseo: The social perspective (Adapted from I. Robertson, Sociology,
NY:Worth Pub.1981)
Doda, Zerihun. 2005. Introduction to Sociology. Ethiopia: Ethiopia Public Health Training
Initiative.
Golden, Arthur. 1998. Memoirs of A Geisha. London: Vintage Publisher.
Klarer, M. 2004. An Introduction to Literary Studies. London: Routledge.
Lockard, Lauren. 2009. Geisha A Behind the Painted Smile. Honors Research Advisory
Seminar.
Wellek, Rene & Austin Warren. 1963. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and
Company.
Perkins, Dorothy. 1991. Encylopedia of Japan: Japanese History & Culture from abacus to
Zori. New York: Fact on Life.