REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN'S DISCOURSE IN RAGAM NI SI MARIAN BY NURMALA KARTINI SJAHRIR: A FEMINIST STUDY AND TEUN A. VAN DIJK'S CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study aims to describe and analyze the representation of women's discourse in Ragam Ni Si Marian by Nurmala Kartini Sjahrir using a feminist literary perspective and Teun A. van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The study is motivated by the absence of research integrating van Dijk’s three-dimensional linguistic framework with feminist criticism, as previous studies have primarily examined the novel through existentialist feminism. Employing a descriptive qualitative method, the research collected data in the form of narrative excerpts, dialogues, and linguistic features through intensive and selective reading, supported by documentation techniques. The data were analyzed using van Dijk’s macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure before being interpreted from a feminist perspective. The findings reveal that the macrostructure constructs women’s discourse through three interconnected themes: women as subjects transcending social boundaries, women negotiating love, tradition, and colonialism, and women positioned at the intersection of gender, race, and class. At the superstructure level, female characters are portrayed as active subjects through a dual narrative scheme that gives equal prominence to women from contrasting social backgrounds. The microstructure, identified as the dominant level, employs diction, code-switching, and rhetorical strategies to construct and simultaneously challenge patriarchal and colonial ideologies. Overall, the novel presents women’s discourse as dialectical, combining both subordination and agency.