Poverty and Its Aesthetic Construction in Hansel and Gretel and the Tom Thumb (Kontruksi Kemiskinan di dalam Dongeng Hansel And Gretel dan The Tom Thumb)

Abstract

Poverty and aesthetics are two contrast concepts which are united by literature in this article through a discussion of poverty construction as an aesthetics strategy in two fairytales i.e. Hansel and Gretel and Tom Thumb. The poverty concept whose meaning is ’shortfall' which is presented as a strategy to gain readers' attention, consensus of certain values, morals, and ideologies in the narration of the two fairytales is mapped in this article to reveal the consequences of a narration in a social milieu. Through Stuart Hall's representation theory, the knowledge construction of the poverty is traced in the text using a constructionist approach. A discursive model in Foucauldian discursive analysis is chosen to link the intrinsic data of the novel with the social context so that the genealogy of the regime of truth could be traced. The result of this analysis shows the oligarchic efforts perpetuate the avant garde; as the right ruler over the poor. The chosen diction in the texts leads to the conclusion that poverty is identical with crime: the nature condition legitimates violence done by the poor. The two fairytales become devices for fostering bourgeois ideology through a naturalization of their narration.