Doctorate degree awarded for research of French novels

DEPOK (JP): The University of Indonesia awarded its tenth doctorate this year to a graduate who wrote on the changing image of women in French novels.

The thesis, written by Sumarwati Kramadibrata Poli, 52, was based on three novels written by French writers before and after the French revolution.

La Princesse de Cleves was written by Madame de Lafayette in 1678, and Indiana by George Sand in 1832. Simon de Beauvoir wrote the third novel studied, Les Mandarins, in 1954.

The summary of her thesis said the novels indicate a universal theme of women's dependence on men, a similar trend visible in many works on Indonesian women.

Before the 1789 revolution, the only women represented in fiction were members of the nobility. The later novels depicted a wider social group of women, Sumarwati said.

The novels revealed a change in the portrayal of women, she said. It shifted from the noble, holy ideal of the nobility to the more independent image of all women.

In La Princesse de Cleves females depicted the image that women must devote their lives to their husbands, who dominated all decisions.

Indiana told a story of a rebellious woman who escaped from home to live together with her boyfriend, whom she did not marry.

On the other hand Les Mandarins told of women who regarded men as friends and with whom happiness and sexual satisfaction were shared.

"Generally the women can be grouped into two, those who followed traditional moral values and those who did not," Sumarwati said.

Sumarwati said the novels offered insights into the role of women in the household, and resistance to public expectations through the thoughts and behavior of the characters.

Sumarwati, who teaches at Hasanuddin University in Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi, was announced as having passed cum laude at the ceremony presided over by rector MK Tadjuddin. (kod)