This paper examines the representation of optimism during the American progressive era in the novel Pollyanna.  The analysis focuses on discovering the discourse of optimism and the critical position of the author. The theory of representation by Stuart Hall and the discursive approach by Michel Foucault were used. The contextual background and the narrations in the novel are collaborated in the analysis process to find the discourse of optimism and the critical position of the author. The result of this research shows that this novel represents optimism through the glad game and the characters' personality alterations who always look at  good sides on everything and make comparison of descending life events.  The study also shows that as a writer,  Porter positions herself  as person who supports optimism as the response in the progressive era in America.   Keywords: glad game, optimism, pollyanna, positive psychology.

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka. This novel tells about a young man named Gregor Samsa who has experienced alienation. This research aims to understand the effects of alienation experienced by Gregor Samsa as a major character in The Metamorphosis. Erich Fromm's theory about three mechanisms of escape is used to analyse the effort of Gregor Samsa in solving his psychological problem of alienation. Modern man usually uses three mechanisms of escape by Erich Fromm to reduce the feeling of fear and isolation of burdened freedom when they want to be free. This research uses qualitative research in which the data are in the form of words and sentences in this novella. This study applies the documentary method as the technique of data collection. The data can be taken from various sources, such as documents, books, and journals. This research shows that Gregor Samsa’s alienation has influenced his entire life, family, and society.

American romanticism is a literary movement in the 19th century that upholds individualism, and freedom from all forms of confinement of convention, oppression or tyranny. This study focuses on abolitionism or the anti-slavery movement found in Frederick Douglass's autobiographical novel entitled The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This study explores American romantic literature's characteristics in the book by capturing the dehumanization experienced by black American slaves and their spirit of resistance to the white oppression. The method used is the inductive method and descriptive method. The results showed that black people could gain confidence in striving for equality and freedom from white oppression by learning to read and write.

Henry David Thoreau merupakan pemikir politik dan lingkungan Amerika yang menggaungkan cara bepikir transendentalisme dalam perjuangannya. Transendentalisme berupaya menghilangkan relasi subjek-objek dalam praktik sosial yang secara tidak langsung tengah mengkoptasi pemikiran Amerika kala itu sehingga melahirkan peperangan, perbudakan dan juga perusakan alam. Tulisan ini lalu ingin memulihkan corak pemikiran transendentalis Asia khususnya Baghavad Gita yang samar samar juga turut membantu membentuk tradisi Amerika. Pemikiran revolusioner demi menolak penindasan justru terlahir melalui gaya transendentalis yang secara metodis menghilangkan relasi subjek dan objek yang tengah populer kala itu. Hilangnya relasi subjek objek secara metodis menghadirkan perspektif bahwa manusia bukanlah subjek untuk memanipulasi alam sebagai objek, menghilangkan hirarki sosial seperti perbudakan karena manusia lain tidak boleh direndahkan karena dianggap objek, dan pemerintahan tidak boleh membungkam warga negara minoritas yang tidak masuk dalam hitungan mayoritas. Meminjam tradisi Foucauldian, tulisan ini secara metodologi pun hendak melacak pemikiran Thoreau yang masih memiliki nuansa Asia. Pelacakan jejak Asia di dalam tradisi pemikiran Thoreau ingin memberikan alternatif bahwa peperangan, perbudakan dan penaklukan adalah pengkhianatan pada cita-cita pembebasan.     Henry David Thoreau is an American political and environmental thinker who echoed the transcendentalist way of thinking in his struggle. Transcendentalism seeks to eliminate subject-object relations in social practices that indirectly co-opted American thinking at the time, resulting in wars, slavery and the destruction of nature. His revolutionary thinking about transcendentalism was actually born through his consumption of eastern discourse, especially Hindhuism with its Bagavad Geeta. The disappearance of subject-object relations presents the perspective that humans are not subjects to manipulate nature as an object, eliminate social hierarchies such as slavery because other humans should not be humiliated because they are considered objects, and the government should not silence minority citizens who are not included in the majority count. This paper methodologically retraces all the Asian thought that anchors Thoreau's thought archaeologically, which seems to have been marginalised in the western tradition. The tracing of Asian views in the tradition of Thoreau's thought wants to provide an alternative that war, slavery and conquest are a betrayal of the ideals of freedom.

There is little research on gender-related children's picture books in Indonesia. In this article, we discuss the disclosure of gender representation in a picture book entitled Perpustakaan Intan. The high number appearances of women, the actions pinned on women, and the clothes displayed in both text and images are materials for visualizing women and men. Previous studies have revealed that men dominate the number of appearances in books. However, this book displays women more often than men. On the one hand, this raises the question of whether this means women are in power, and on the other hand, men are portrayed as powerless. Utilizing the multimodality approach, the results show that although women appear more in the narrative, women are still represented as less powerful.