Women's Screams in the Novels Woman at Point Zero and Gadis Pantai: An Existentialist Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This study examines women's cries in the novels Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi and Gadis Pantai by Pramoedya Ananta Toer using the existentialist feminist perspective of Simone de Beauvoir. This approach was chosen because it can dissect women's experiences not as mere biological fate, but as social constructs that can be resisted through existential awareness and action. This study uses a qualitative literature review with data sources in the form of the 2003 translation of Woman at Point Zero (177 pages) and the 1987 edition of Gadis Pantai (121 pages). The primary research instrument is the researcher herself, who acts as recorder, critical reader, and interpreter of the texts. This study uses note-taking techniques in data collection. Data analysis is conducted through thorough reading, data classification, description, interpretation, and drawing conclusions. The results show that women's cries in both novels are not merely physical cries or emotional expressions, but rather a planned existential resistance against the hegemonic patriarchal system. The meaning of the scream goes beyond individual suffering, as it serves as a sharp social critique of patriarchal structures that continue to place women in subordinate, objectified, and othered positions. The scream also depicts women's persistent efforts to reclaim agency, autonomy, and recognition of their existence as self-determining subjects, in accordance with the demands of the ethics of freedom in existentialist feminism.