Hegemony in Alice Walker’s Selected Poems in Hard Times Require Furious Dancing

Abstract

This research analyzed the existence of hegemony practices in Alice Walker’s selected poems Hard Times Require Furious Dancing during the 21st century, whereby globalization rapidly increased. The hegemony practices reflected in Alice Walker’s selected poems resulted from the socio-political power of certain individuals or groups. These hegemony practices brought adverse impacts including restricting people’s rights to express their opinions, increasing poverty, and racism in some areas, such as in the United States of America. This research aimed to find the hegemony practices constructed in Walker’s selected poems “You’d Be Surprised,” “You Came,” “Rich,” and “Loving Humans” contained in Hard Times Require Furious Dancing using Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, and to reveal the critical position of Walker as the poet toward the poems’ significance using Michael Riffaterre’s semiotics of poetry theory. Applying a qualitative approach that dealt with a context description, this analysis found the kinds of hegemony practices constructed in Walker’s selected poems, including ideological and economic hegemony. This analysis also found there was resistance or counter idea from Walker as the poet to the hegemony, which harmed society.