Feminist Linguistics in Literary Criticism

by Katie Wales (Contributor), Anne Varty (Contributor), Clara Calvo (Contributor)

Essays employing close scrutiny of texts to clarify gender issues in feminist literary criticism.

One of the major problems in feminist literary criticism is the tendency to generalise when exploring language and gender. This volume clarifies the issues involved and tests generalisations by specific analysis, and in the process defines a "feminist stylistics" - a fresh, practical approach which will serve as a model for future work in this area.
The seven essays in the collection analyse widely varying literary texts, using the framework of linguistic theory to address feminist issues. The texts range from Shakespeare's As You Like It to present-day pop songs, and also cover poetry and contemporary fiction. The feminist critics whose approach is under examination include Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva, Showalter, Woolf and a number of British feminists; and the linguistic models employed cover discourse analysis, politeness theory, lexicalisation and transitivity.

Clara Calvo, Lesley Jeffries, Marion Lomax, Sara Mills, Louise Sylvester, Anne Varty, Shan Wareing

175 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Katie Wales is a Special Professor in English Language and Literature at the University of Nottingham in England. She is a founder member of the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), and co-founder of its journal Language and Literature.