Reconstructing Reality in Phil Kelly's Farsight: Shovah's Struggle to Internalize T'au Empire's Ideology

THOHA ARSYAD, Mala Hernawati, M.A.

2021 | Skripsi | S1 SASTRA INGGRIS

Penelitian ini mengusut cara kerja ideologi Shovah akan the Greater Good dan bagaimana fantasi dapat membantunya merekonstruksi realitas dalam novel Farsight karya Phil Kelly. Data utama penelitian didapat melalui pembacaan dekat novel. Penyelidikan perjalanan ideologis Shovah dilakukan melalui teori ideologi Slavoj Zizek yang diperoleh dari buku The Sublime Object of Ideology. Analisis memperlihatkan bahwa the Greater Good bekerja sebagai penjahit ideologis, penanda kosong yang menyatukan atribut-atribut tertentu. Akan tetapi, the Greater Good tidak stabil karena hanya ada kekosongan di baliknya. Menurut teori Zizek, kesetiaan Shovah kepada the Greater Good dapat dilihat sebagai proses pemuasan ngarai traumatis Yang Lain yang serupa dengan kekosongan tersebut. Untuk menghindari ngarai traumatis tersebut, Shovah membangun fantasi, sebuah pelindung akan hasrat Yang Lain, untuk tetap hidup dalam realitas. Selain itu, penelitian ini menemukan bahwa hubungan antara Simbolik dan Riil adalah apa yang membuat Shovah dirinya di realitas sehari-hari.

This research examines the logic behind Shovah's ideology upon the Greater Good and how his fantasy helps him reconstruct his reality in Phil Kelly's novel Farsight. The primary data are taken from a close reading of the novel. The analysis of Shovah's ideological journey follows Slavoj Zizek's theory of ideology taken from his book The Sublime Object of Ideology. The analysis reveals that the Greater Good acts as an ideological quilt, an empty signifier that unifies particular attributes. However, at the same time, the Greater Good as an ideological quilt is unstable because there is nothing behind it. According to Zizek's theory, Shovah's devotion to the Greater Good can be seen as a process of satisfying the traumatic abyss of the big Other, which is analogous to nothingness. To elude this traumatic abyss, Shovah constructed fantasy, a screen against the desire of the big Other, to keep living in reality. Furthermore, this research finds that the relationship between the Symbolic and the Real is the key to what makes Shovah himself in the immediate reality.

Kata Kunci : ideology, fantasy, Symbolic, Real, T'au Empire