Feminist Stylistics

IV FEMINIST STYLISTICS

In a motorway accident a man is killed and his son severely injured. The boy is rushed to a casualty ward and the units most eminent specialist in the treatment of the physical trauma is summoned. The surgeon arrives with a retinue of assistants, hesitates and explains, I cant operate on him. Hes my son. (Quoted from Bradford, 1998:175)

A. LECTURE OUTLINE

I. Sara Mills: Feminist stylistics I.1 Aims I.2 A feminist model of text analysis I.3 Feminist analysis: a text I.4 Analysis at the level of the word Sexism in language Generic Pronouns Generic nouns Effects of Sexist Language-Use Guidelines for the use of gender-free language The semantic derogation of women Endearments and Diminutives Female Experience: Euphemism and Taboo Lexical gaps Dictionaries and Gatekeepers I.5 Analysis at the level of the phrase/sentence/discourse Ready made-phrases/sentences Presupposition and inference Metaphor Jokes and humour Transitivity choices Feminism and Ideology I.6 Checklist
1

II. Feminist stylistic analysis in practice. B. BASIC READING

B.I Compulsory Reading

Mills, Sara (1995) Feminist Stylistics. London: Routledge.

Basic essential reading in Feminist stylistics. It provides readers with a tool-kit with which to expose gender bias. Also useful for its extensive resource bibliography. Read: Feminist Model of Text : pp. 25-44. Analysis at the level of the word, pp 83-127. Analysis at the level of the phrase/sentence, 128-158. http://www.apaonline.org/publications/texts/nonsexist.aspx http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpURL_ID=11489&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Guidelines on Gender Neutral Language (UNESCO, 1999) This guide will help you eliminate sexist stereotypes and language in your writing. It also provides alternatives for the adoption of gender-neutral language.

B.II To go on reading:

T-incluye.org Recopilatorio de Recursos Web sobre lenguaje no sexista. http://www.tincluye.org/recursos/documentos/documentos/Recopilatorio_de_recursos_web_sobr e_lenguaje_no_sexista.pdf Ministerio de Igualdad http://www.inmujer.migualdad.es/mujer/publicaciones/catalogo/serie_lenguaje.htm http://www.bizkaia.net/ahaldun_nagusia/parekatuz/archivos/castellano/Mercedes%20Bengoetxe a_Guia%20Revision%20Lenguaje.pdf Bengoechea Mercedes, Gua para la revisin del lenguaje desde la perspectiva de Gnero. Mills, Sara (1995) Feminist Stylistics. London: Routledge.

Basic essential reading in Feminist stylistics. It provides readers with a tool-kit with which to expose gender bias. Also useful for its extensive resource bibliography. Mills, S. (1992c) 'Knowing your place: towards a Marxist feminist contextualised stylistics', in M. Toolan (ed.) Language, Text and Context: Essays in Stylistics, London: Routledge, pp. 182-207.

Feminist Stylistics

Mills, S. (1994). Working with Sexism: What Can Feminist Text Analysis Do? In Peter Verdonk and Jean Jacques Weber (eds.) Twentieth Century Fiction. London: Routledge. Burton, Deirdre (1982) Through Glass Darkly: Through Dark Glasses: On Stylistics and Political Commitment Via a Study of a Passage from Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar. Reprinted in Jean Jacques Weber (Ed) The Stylistics Reader: From Roman Jakobson to the Present. (1996). London: Arnold, pp 224-240. Wales, K. (1994) Feminist Linguistics in Literary Criticism. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. Shepherd, V. (1994) Literature about Language. London: Routledge. Read: Chapter 7: The Language of Women and Men Nervous prostration by Anna Wickham with particular reference to Jonathan Swifts The Furniture of a Womans Mind, pp. 117-133. Fairley, Irene, R. (1992) Virginia Woolfs Old Mrs. Grey: Issues of Genre In Toolan, M. (Ed.) (1992) Language, Text and Context. Routledge, London. Clark, K. (1992) The Linguistics of Blame: Representations of Women in The Suns Reporting of Crimes of Sexual Violence. In Toolan, M. (Ed.) (1992) Language, Text and Context. Routledge, Londres. Mills Sara (1996) Knowing Your Place: A Marxist Feminist Stylistic Analysis. In Weber, Jean Jacques A Stylistic Reader. London: Arnold. Mills, S. (1998) Post-feminist Text Analysis. Language and Literature, vol 7 (3), pag 235-254. Mills, Sara (1997) Discourse. London: Routledge. Read: Discourse and Ideology, pp. 29-47; Feminist Theory and Discourse Theory, pp. 77-103. Discourse Analysis, Critical Linguistics and Social Psychology, pp. 131-158. Bradford, (1997) Stylistics, London: Routledge. A detailed survey of the interactions of style, gender, writer, reader and literary history is offered in Part III. Read: Chapter 12: 'Gender and Genre'. Green, K. and Jill LeBihan (1996) Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook. London: Routledge. Read: Chapter 6 Feminism, Literature and Criticism, pp 183-227. Montgomery, Martin 1986 (1995) An Introduction to Language and Society. London: Routledge. Read: Chapter 8 Language and gender, pp. 147-172. Coates Jennifer (Ed.) (1998) Language and Gender: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. Pope, R. (1998) The English Studies Book. London: Routledge. Read: Feminism and Gender Studies 111-124. Simpson, P.(1993) Language Ideology and Point of View.London: Routledge. Read: Gender, Ideology and Point of View, pp. 159-177.
3

 Nash, W. (1990) Language in Popular Fiction. London: Routledge. Read: Womans place: a dip into magazines, pp. 21-52; Read: Mans business: a look round the action story, pp. 56-78.

C. EXERCISES: C.I C.I.1 Stylistics Critical Reading: Read and discuss:

Feminist stylistics: an analysis which identifies itself as feminist and which uses linguistic or language analysis to examine texts. Feminist analysis aims to draw attention to and change the way that gender is represented, since it is clear that a great many of these representational practices are not in the interests of either women or men. Thus, feminist stylistic analysis is concerned not only to describe sexism in a text, but also to analyse the way that point of view, agency, metaphor, or transitivity are unexpectedly closely related to matters of gender, to discover whether women's writing practices can be described, and so on. By close reading, using techniques from a range of linguistic and literary backgrounds, (feminist stylistics aims) to present readers with a vocabulary to describe what is going on in texts and what is going on in the readers themselves when they read (Mills, 1995:1). ...........analysis of language can help the reader be aware of ideologies of gender difference which are oppressive. But this is not my only aim, since ideologies of gender are not solely oppressive, and they are not simply imposed on women by men. Women and men construct their own sense of self within the limits of these discursive frameworks, and build their pleasures and emotional development, often in conscious resistance to, as well as in compliance with, these constraints (Haugg 1988; Smith 1990; S. Mills 1992a). Thus, analysis of images and texts representing gender difference enables us to trace the options available to subjects in terms of the construction of subject positions or roles. As Rajan states, 'our understanding of the problems of "real" women cannot lie outside the "imagined" constructs in and through which "women" emerge as subjects. Negotiating with these mediations and simulacra we seek to arrive at an understanding of the issues at stake' (Rajan 1994: 10). What I would like to capture in this book is the way that the meanings of gender are represented so that it is possible to contest those representations, or reinterpret them; but I would also like to 'make strange' the way gender is represented in our culture, so that perhaps we might be able to think of ways in which it could be represented differently and more productively, both for women and men. I am concerned in this book with the representation of gender difference, that is, the way being a woman or being a man, being straight or being gay, being white or black, is represented both in words and images (Mills, 1995: 2)

C.I.2

Read and discuss: To sum up let me offer the following programme of eight points, which I see the teacher of stylistics as pursuing. ............... a. Stylistics can be part of a programme to enable students to handle competently a coherent and comprehensive descriptive grammar, which can then be used in either literature-oriented studies, or linguistics-oriented studies.
4

Feminist Stylistics

b. It is always at least a 'way in' to a text. c. It can shift discussion to awareness of effects that are intuitively felt to be in a text in the process of reading it, and a contingent 'making strange' of those effects and feelings simultaneously. It is oriented towards 'knowing how' as well as 'knowing that' (Ryle 1949). d. It can spell out a shared vocabulary for describing the language of any text whether those effects are straightforward or ambiguous. e. Crucially, stylistics can point the way to understanding the ways in which the language of a given text constructs its own (fictional) reality. f. It should then point the way towards understanding the ways in which language constructs the 'reality' of everyday life - and an awareness that it always must do so. So that, in a sense, everyday 'reality' can usefully be seen as a series of 'fictional' constructs - as texts open to analysis and interpretation in just the same way as texts marked out for literary study are. g. This would lead to an awareness of the importance of perceiving the constituent parts of the fictions we live in and by, if only to map them against alternative constructions of reality. h. Finally, this would lead to an understanding that the fictions (both large and small) that we live in and by can be rewritten. Both individually and collectively. As reform or revolution, whichever is more appropriate. Burton, Deirdre (1982) Through Glass Darkly: Through Dark Glasses: On Stylistics and Political Commitment via a study of a passage from Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar. Reprinted in Jean Jacques Weber (Ed) The Stylistics Reader: From Roman Jakobson to the Present. (1996). London: Arnold, pp 224-240.

C. III

Consider the following models of language and text analysis:

Models of language and text: CONTRASTING MODELS

A TRADITIONAL MODEL OF TEXT

SPEAKER

HEARER

HAVE AN IDEA/THOUGHT

UNDERSTAND IDEA

ENCODE INTO WORDS

DECODE THE MESSAGE

SPEAK WORDS

HEAR WORDS

MESSAGE What are the problems involved with the above model? What are the implications for stylistic analysis?
5

A FEMINIST MODEL OF TEXT ANALYSIS (Mills,1995) Context of production General language/ discourse contraints Textual antecedents Context of reception Intended audience

Literary conventions

Actual audience

Current literary trends (LITERARY) TEXT Affiliations: Gender, race Political, national Class Publishing practices Sociohistorical factors Author What is your opinion? What are the implications for stylistic analysis?

Implied reader

Sociohistorical factors

Actual reader/s

Publishing practices

C. IV

Discuss the following passage: When we read we do not always read suspiciously; we are used to certain types of messages and they often do not strike us as necessarily oppressive or pernicious. We often view language simply as a tool or as a vehicle for ideas, rather than as a material entity which may in fact shape those ideas. (Mills, 1995:1)

C. V

Read the following sentences:

Mans vital interests are food, shelter and access to females. Man, unlike other mammals, has difficulties in giving birth When the police officer has completed his investigation, he files a report. The modern reader may at first feel baffled by the overpunctuation, as it will feel to him that there are too many commas. The lack of vitality is aggravated by the fact that there are so few able-bodied young adults about. They have all gone off to work or look for work, leaving behind the old, the disabled, the women and the children. (The Sunday Times) A coloured South African who was subjected to racial abuse by his neighbours went beserk with a machete and killed his next-door neighbours wife, Birmingham Crown Court heard yesterday. (The Guardian) The more education an individual attains the better his occupation is likely to be.
6

Feminist Stylistics

EFL TEACHERS: required first week in February. Girl with driving licence for Italy; Man with experience and girl with degree in German for Germany. Tel:071 What are your reactions?

C. VI

Read the text below from the Heartsearch column of the New Statesman (May 1987), and

C. VI.1 Underline the words that reveal or hint at the sex of the writer. C. VI.2 Put a circle round all uses of generic nouns (eg terms like scientist which seems to refer to all scientists, regardless of whether they are male or female). C.VI.3 Are there any differences between the way that male and female writers use generic nouns in these advertisements? C.VI.4 What other linguistic differences are there which relate either to the sex of the writer or the sex of the person being sought? (Source Montgomery, M., Durant, A., Fabb, N., Furniss, T and Mills, S. Ways of Reading. London: Routledge. pp 70-71)

CAMBRIDGE GRADUATE vaguely academic, likes films, opera, Europe, old things Lithe, fit, 6', sporty. Still attractive despite thinning hair INCURABLE ROMANTIC, Charming, uncomplicated, attractive woman, not slim, not young, feminine, wide interests seeks personable caring retired male, sixty plus, middle brow for commitment LADY ATTRACTIVE, intelligent, independent mind and means, seeks similar man 40-50 Devon Cornwall only Rich 1948 Claret with firm strong body sensuous flavour and adventurous bouquet, handsomely bottled, seeks younger crisp and frisky Chablis, equally well-packaged, for mulled fun, including weekends and holidays abroad with a view to durable casting. Photo appreciated SENSITIVE HIPPY, 24, seeks sincere and caring female for loving relationship.

C. VII Read and discuss: there actually are overlaps and gaps in word meanings. Gaps in meaning can be difficult to identify, but that does not mean that they do not exist. If you know another language well, you will soon realize that there are some words other languages have that English has no equivalent for, and vice versa. ........................... In a science fiction novel by Suzette Haden Elgin, Native Tongue, women in a futuristic society make up their own language to fill in the gaps in the existing language, which represents masculine, rather than feminine values. The new meanings for which they invent words include wonewith: 'to be socially dyslexic; uncomprehending of the social signals of others', ramimelh: 'to refrain from asking, with evil intent, especially when it is clear that someone badly wants the other to ask'; and radiidin: 'non-holiday, a time allegedly a holiday but actually so much a burden because of work and preparations that it is a dreaded occasion; especially
7

when there are too many guests and none of them help'. These meanings cannot be expressed in English using just one word! + Having a word for a concept means speakers of that language are more likely to acknowledge the possible existence of whatever the word refers to. In the case of these invented words, attention is drawn to the experiences and perspectives of women in the novel, and the fictional society they inhabit in fact changes as a result of this recognition behind them (Thornborrow and Wareign, 1998: 83-84).

C. VIII Consider the following extract: 'Did I startle you?' said Birkin, shaking hands with her. 'I thought you had heard me come in.' 'No,' she faltered, scarcely able to speak. He laughed, saying he was sorry. She wondered why it amused him. 'It is so dark,' he said. 'Shall we have the light?' And moving aside he switched on the strong electric lights. The classroom was distinct and hard, a strange place after the soft dim magic that filled it before he came. Birkin turned curiously to look at Ursula. Her eyes were round and wondering, bewildered, her mouth quivered slightly. She looked like one who was suddenly awakened. The passage is from Chapter 3 of D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love (1921).

C.VIII Change the gender of the pronouns and reverse the position of the proper nouns, Birkin and Ursula. What stylistic effects are achieved? How does it affect the text and its meaning? Look at the presentation of gender roles. Are there any changes in connection with gender stereotypes ? Read Bradfords modified version in: Bradford, (1997) Stylistics, London: Routledge, pp 88-90 He heard, but did not notice the click ofthe door. Suddenly he started. He saw, in the shaft of ruddy, copper-coloured light near him, the face of a woman. It was gleaming like fire, watching him, waiting for him to be aware. It startled him terribly. He thought he was going to faint. All his suppressed, subconscious fear sprang into being, with anguish. 'Did I startle you?' said Ursula, shaking hands with him. 'I thought you had heard me come in.' 'No,' he faltered, scarcely able to speak. She laughed, saying she was sorry. He wondered why it amused her. 'It is so dark,' she said. 'Shall we have the light?' And moving aside she switched on the strong electric lights. The classroom was distinct and hard, a strange place after the soft dim magic that filled it before she came. Ursula turned curiously to look at Birkin. His eyes were round and wondering, bewildered, his mouth quivered slightly. He looked like one who is suddenly wakened.

C. IX

Analyse the following text:

This is a short passage from Sylvia Plath's autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. It is a passage which details her experience of electric-shock treatment as a 'remedy' for severe depression.
8

Feminist Stylistics

The wall-eyed nurse came back. She unclasped my watch and dropped it in her pocket. Then she started tweaking the hairpins from my hair. Doctor Gordon was unlocking the closet. He dragged out a table on wheels with a machine on it and rolled it behind the head of the bed. The nurse started swabbing my temples with a smelly grease. As she leaned over to reach the side of my head nearest the wall, her fat breast muffled my face like a cloud or a pillow. A vague, medicinal stench emanated from her flesh. 'Don't worry,' the nurse grinned down at me. 'Their first time everybody's scared to death.' I tried to smile, but my skin had gone stiff, like parchment. Doctor Gordon was fitting two metal plates on either side of my head. He buckled them into place with a strap that dented my forehead, and gave me a wire to bite. I shut my eyes. There was a brief silence, like an indrawn breath. Then something bent down and took hold of me and shook me like the end of the world. Whee-ee-ee-ee-ee, it shrilled, through an air crackling with blue light, and with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant. I wondered what terrible thing it was that I had done. C. IX.1 Who does what to whom?'. C. IX.2 Rewrite the paragraph from the point of view of either the nurse or the doctor, while and this is crucial - staying as close to the words of the original text as possible. C.IX.3 Here are two rewritten versions for you to compare with your own. (a) the paragraph from the nurse's point of view and (b) the paragraph from the doctor's point of view (a) I returned to the patient's bed I unclasped her watch and put it safely in my pocket. Then I gently took the hairpins from her hair. Dr Gordon unlocked the closet He pulled out the trolly with the EST machine on it, and rolled it behind the head of the bed I started to swab her temples with protective ointment. 'Don't worry,' I said to her reassuringly 'The first time everybody's a little nervous'. She returned a brief smile. Dr Gordon fitted two metal plates to either side of her head, and buckled them firmly into place with the safety strap. He gave her a wire to bite on. She closed her eyes. There was a short silence. Then, as she lay there, her eyes closed patiently biting the wire, her body suddenly arched upwards into the most perfect 'D' shape, held for a few seconds, then relaxed. We had commenced treatment'

(b) Nurse Smith re-entered the room. She began to remove all metal objects from the patient I unlocked the storage cabinet and, rolling out the equipment, began to prepare it for the treatment. The patient seemed a little afraid, so Nurse Smith said a few words of encouragement, accompanied by her usual reassuring smile, as she applied the lubricating grease to the girl's forehead As I fastened the two metal plates in position on her temples, I could see the patient was nervous, but I wasn't unduly worried as this kind of treatment was completely foreign to her I put the wire between her teeth for her to bite The girl shut her eyes, and I switched on the equipment to begin the therapy. (Texts quoted from: Burton, Deirdre 1982; also in Pope, 1998)
9

C. X Read an article from the journal: Language and Literature, 1998, vol 7 (3) Special issue on Feminist Text Analysis and the Media Walsh, Clare (1998) Gender and Mediatized Political Discourse: A Case Study of Press Coverage of Margaret Becketts Campaign for the Labour Leadership in 1994. Language and Literature, vol 7(3), pag 199-215. Christie, Christine (1998) Rewriting Rights: A Relevance Theoretical Analysis of Press Constructions of Sexual Harassment and the Responses of Readers. Language and Literature vol 7 (3), pag 199-215. Mills, S. (1998) Post-feminist Text Analysis. Language and Literature, vol 7 (3), pag 235-254. Thornborrow, Joanna (1998) Playing Hard to Get: Metaphor and Representation in the Discourse of Car Advertisements. Language and Literature vol 7 (3), pag 199215.

Summarise its content and give your critical opinion.

D. FEEDBACK QUESTIONS

Sexism in Language: Discuss. Give a suitable definition of sexist-language. Speak about sexism in language: Generic Pronouns Generic nouns The semantic derogation of women Asymmetrical representation of women and men: lexical choices. Endearments and Diminutives Lexical gaps
Dictionaries and Gatekeepers

Ready made-phrases/sentences Presupposition and inference Metaphor Jokes and humour Transitivity choices

Effects of Sexist Language-Use. Guidelines for the use of gender-free language. Explain.

10

Feminist Stylistics

E. SUPPLEMENTARY FURTHER REFERENCES Abbott, F. (1990) Men and Intimacy: Personal Accounts Exploring the Dilemmas of Modern Male Sexuality, Freedom, CA: Crossing Press. Althusser, L. (1984) Essays in Ideology, London: Verso. Attridge, D. (1988) Peculiar Language: Literature as Difference from the Renaissance to James Joyce, London: Methuen. Attridge, D. (1989) 'The writing of "Penelope" and the question of women's language', Modern Fiction Studies 35, 3: 543 64. Batsleer, J., Davies, T., O'Rourke, R. and Weedon, C. (1985) Rewriting English: Cultural Politics of Gender and Class, London: Methuen. Battersby, C. (1989) Gender and Genius: Towards a Feminist Aesthetics, London: Women's Press. Belsey, C. and Moore, J. (eds) (1989) The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of 'literary Criticism, London: Macmillan. Bem, S. et al. (1973) 'Does sex-biased job advertising "aid and abet" sex discrimination?', Journal of Applied Social Psychology 3: 6-18. Bergvall, Victoria L., Janet M. Bing and Alice F. Freed (eds.) (1996) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice. London: Addison Wesley Longman. Betterton, R. (ed.) (1987) Looking On: Images of Femininity in the Visual Arts and Media, London: Pandora. Bhaya Nair, Rukmini (1992) Gender, Genre and Generative Grammar: Deconstructing the matrimonial column. In Toolan, M. (Ed.) (1992) Language, Text and Context. Routledge, Londres. Black, M. and Coward, R. (1990) 'Linguistic, social and sexual relations', in D. Cameron (ed.) The Feminist Critique of Language, London: Routledge, pp. 111-33. Bloom, H. (1975) The Anxiety of Influence, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Boone, J. and Cadden, M. (1990) Engendering Men: The Question of Male Feminist Criticism, London: Routledge. Bowles, G. and Klein, R. (eds) (1983) Theories of Women's Studies, London: Routledge. Bristow, J. (1997) Sexuality. London: Routledge. Bristow, J. (ed.) (1992) Sexual Sameness: Textual Differences in Lesbian and Gay Writing, London: Routledge. Brown, R. and Gilman, A. (1972) 'The pronouns of power and solidarity', in P. Giglioli (ed.) Language and Social Context, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 253-76. Burton, D. (1982) Through glass darkly: through dark glasses', in R. Carter (ed.), Language and Literature: an Introductory Reader in Stylistics, London: Allen & Unwin, 194-214. Burton, Deirdre (1996) Through Glass Darkly: Through Dark Glasses. In Weber, Jean Jacques A Stylistic Reader. London: Arnold. Butler, J and Scott, J W (1992) Feminists Theorise the Political. London: Routledge. Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge. Butturff, D. et al. (1978) Women's Language and Style, Ohio: L & S Books. Bygrave, M. (1991) 'Mind your language', Weekend Guardian ( 11-12 May): 14-15. Caldas-Coulthard, C R (1996)' "Women Who Pay for Sex and Enjoy It" Trangression versus Morality in Women's Magazines', in C R Caldas Coulthard and M Coulthard (eds) Texts and Practices Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, pp 250-70 London Routledge. Cameron D (1990) Demythologizing Sociolinguistics Why Language does not Reflect Society. In JE Joseph and TJ Taylor (eds) Ideologies of Language. London: Routledge. pp 79-93 Cameron, D. (1990) The Feminist Critique of Language: a Reader, London: Routledge. Cameron, D. (1985) Feminism and Linguistic Theory, London: Macmillan. Cameron, D. (1985) Feminism and Linguistic Theory, London: Macmillan.
11

Cameron, D. (1990b) 'Demythologising Sociolinguistics: Why Language does not Reflect Society', in J. E. Joseph and T. J. Taylor (eds) Ideologies of Language, London: Routledge, pp. 79-96. Cameron, D. (ed.) (1990a) The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader, London: Routledge. Cameron, D. and E. Frazer (1987) The Lust to Kill, Cambridge: Polity Press. Carter, R. (ed.) (1982) Language and Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics, London: Allen & Unwin. Cixous, H. (1981b) 'Sorties', in E. Marks and I. de Courtivron (eds) New French Feminisms, Brighton: Harvester, pp. 90-9. Cixous, H. (1986) The Newly Born Woman, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Clement, C. (1989) Opera, or the Undoing of Women, London: Virago. Coates, J. (1983) The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries, London:Longman. Coates, J. (1986) Women, Men and Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Coates, J. and Cameron, D. (eds) (1988) Women in Their Speech Communities, Harlow: Longman. Coates, J. and D. Cameron (1988) Women in their Speech Communities, London: Longman. Coward, R. (1984) Female Desire, London: Paladin. Crawford, M. and Chaffin, R. (1986) 'The readers' construction of meaning', in E. A. Flynn and P. P. Schweickart (eds) Gender and Reading, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 3-30. Crowther, B. and Leith, D. (1995) 'Feminism, language and the rhetoric of TV wildlife programmes', in S. Mills (ed.) Language and Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Harlow: Longman. Culler, J. (1983) 'Reading as a woman', in On Reconstruction, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 43-64. Christie, Christine (1998) Rewriting Rights: A Relevance Theoretical Analysis of Press Constructions of Sexual Harassment and the Responses of Readers. Language and Literature vol 7 (3), pag 199-215. Daly, M. (1981) Gyn/Ecology, London: Women's Press. Davies, K., Dickey, J. and Stratford, D. (eds) (1987) Out of Focus, Writings on Women and the Media, London: Women's Press. Day, A. (1988) Joker Man: Reading the Lyrics of Bob Dylan, Oxford: Blackwell. Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1986) 'What is a minor literature', in Kafka: Towards a Minor literature, trans. D. Polan, Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota University Press. Dollimore, J. (1991) Sexual Dissidence, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Durant, A. (1995) Soundtrack and Tallback: Language Communication and Education, London: Macmillan. Eagleton, M. (ed.) (1986) Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader, Oxford: Blackwell. Eagleton, T. (1991) Ideology: An Introduction, London: Verso. Edelsky, C. (1977) 'Acquisition of an aspect of communicative competence: learning what it means to talk like a lady', in S. Ervin-Tripp and C. Mitchell-Kernan (eds) Child Discourse, New York: Academic Press. Ellman, M. (1968) Thinking about Women, New York: Harcourt Brace. Fabb, N. et al. (eds) (1987) The Linguistics of Writing, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Flynn, E. and Schweickart, P. (eds) (1986) Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts and Contexts, Baltimore, MD/London: Johns Hopkins University Press. Foucault, M. (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A. Sheridan Smith, New York: Harper. Foucault, M. (1980) 'What is an author?', in J. V. Harari (ed.) Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Poststructuralist Criticism, London: Methuen. Foucault, M. (1981) The History of Sexuality vol. I, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Frith, G. (1991) 'Transforming features: double vision and the female reader', New Formations 15 (Winter): 67-81.
12

Feminist Stylistics

Frye, M. (1981) 'Male chauvinism: a conceptual analysis', in M. Vetterling-Braggin (ed.) Sexist Language: A Modern Philosophical Analysis, Totowa, NJ: Littlefield Adams, pp. 7-22. Furman, N. (1980) 'Textual feminism', in S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (eds) Women and Language in Literature and Society, New York: Praeger, pp. 63-88. Fuss, D. (1990) Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference, London: Routledge. Gamman, L. and Marshment, M. (eds) (1988) The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture, London: Women's Press. Gibbons, T. (1980) Language and Awareness, London: Batsford. Grabrucker, M. (1988) There's a Good Girl, London: Women's Press. Gunew, S. (ed.) (1990) Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct, London: Routledge. Haden-Elgin, S. (1985) Native Tongue, London: Women's Press. Harding, S. (1992) 'The instability of the analytical categories of feminist theory', in H. Crowley and S. Himmelweit (eds) Knowing Women, Cambridge: Polity/Open University Press, pp. 338-54. Hastert, Marie Paule and Weber, Jean Jacques (1992) Power and Mutuality in Middlemarch. In Toolan, M. (Ed.) (1992) Language, Text and Context. Routledge, Londres . Haugg, F. (1988) Female Sexualisation, London: Verso. Hiatt, M. (1977) The Way Women Write, New York: Teachers' College Press, Columbia University. Hobby, E. and White, C. (eds) (1991) What Lesbians Do in Books, London: Women's Press. Hoey, M. (1983) On the Surface of Discourse, London: Allen & Unwin. Horner, A. and Zlosnick, S. (1990) Landscapes of Desire: Metaphors in Modern Women's diction, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Howard, J. and Allen, C. (1990) 'The gendered context of reading', Gender and Society 4(4) (December): 534- 52. Humm, M. (1989) The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Hyams, R. (1990) Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Irigaray, L. (1985) This Sex Which Is Not One, ed. C. Porter, New York: Cornell University Press. Jardine, A. and Smith, P. (eds) (1987) Men in Feminism, London: Methuen. Jones, A. R. (1985) 'Inscribing femininity: French theories of the feminine', in G. Greene and C. Kahn (eds) Making a Difference, London: Methuen. Kamuf, P. (1980) 'Writing like a woman', in S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (eds) Women and language in Literature and Society, New York: Praeger, 284-99. Kaplan, C. (1986) Sea Changes: Culture and Feminism, London: Verso. Kaplan, C. Glover, D. (1998) Gender. London: Routledge. Kaplan, G. T. and Rogers, L.J. (1990) The definition of male and female: biological reductionism and the sanctions of normality', in S. Gunew (ed.) Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct, London: Routledge, pp. 205-28. Kappeler, S. (1986) The Pornography of Representation, Cambridge: Polity Press. Kappeler, S. et al. (eds.) (1983) Teaching the Text, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Kidd, V. (1971) 'A study of the images produced through the use of the male pronoun as the generic', in Moments in Contemporary Rhetoric and Communication 1(2): 25-30. Kolodny, A. (1975) 'Some notes on defining a feminist literary criticism', Critical Inquiry 2(1) (Autumn): 63- 80. Kramarae, C. and Treichler, P. (1985) A Feminist Dictionary, London: Pandora. Kramarae, C. et al. (eds) (1980) The Voices and Words of Women and Men, Oxford: Pergamon. Kristeva, J. (1981) 'Oscillation between power and denial', in E. Marks and I. de Courtivron (eds) New French Feminisms, Brighton: Harvester, pp. 165- 8. Lakoff, R. (1975) Language and Womans Place. Harper Colophon: Nueva York. Lakoff, R. (1975) Language and Woman's Place, New York: Harper & Row. Laws, S. (1990) Issues of Blood: Politics of Menstruation, London: Macmillan. LeCercle, J. (1990) The Violence of Language, London: Routledge.
13

Lee, D. (1992) Competing Discourses: Perspective and Ideology in Language, London: Longman. MacKay, D. (1983) 'Prescriptive grammar and the pronoun problem', in B. Thorne et al. (eds) Language Gender and Society, Rowley, MA: Newbury House, pp. 38-53. MacKay, D. et al. (1979) 'On the comprehension and production of pronouns', Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour 18: 661-73. Marks, E. and de Courtivron, I. (eds) (1981) New French Feminisms, Brighton: Harvester. Marshment, M. et al. (eds) (1988) The Female Gaze, London: Women's Press. Martin, J. R. (1986) 'Grammaticalizing ecology: the politics of baby seals and kangaroos', in T. Threadgold et al. (eds) Language, Semiotics, Ideology. Sydney Studies in Society and Culture, no. 3, pp. 225-68. Martnez Dueas, J. L. (1993) Words, Women and Orders: the Stylistics of Anglican Discourse. Revue Belge de Philologie et D Histoire, 71: 677-685. Martyna, W. (1978) 'What does "he" mean: use of the generic masculine', Journal of Communication 28: 131-8. Martyna, W. (1980) 'The psychology of the generic masculine', in S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (eds) Women and Language in Literature and Society, New York: Praeger. Martyna, W. (1983) 'Beyond the he/man approach: the case for non-sexist language', in B. Thorne et al. (eds) Language, Gender and Society Rowley, MA: Newbury House, pp. 25-37. McConnell-Ginet, S. et al. (eds) (1980) Women and Language in Literature and Society, New York: Praeger. McNay, L. (1992) Focault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self. Cambridge Polity Press. Middleton, P. (1992) The Inward Gaze: Masculinity and Subjectivity in Modern Culture, London: Routledge. Milesi, L. (1989) 'Toward a female grammar of sexuality: the de/recomposition of "Storiella as she is syung"', Modern Fiction Studies 35, 3: 569 86. Miller, C. and Swift, K. (1979) Words and Women, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Miller, C. and Swift, K. (1980) The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing, New York: Lippincott & Crowell; revised edn (1989) London: Women's Press. Millett, K. (1977) Sexual Politics, London: Virago. Mills, J. (1989) Womanwords, London: Longman. Mills, S. (1987) 'The male sentence', Language and Communication 7(3): 189-98. Mills, S. (1989a) 'No poetry for ladies: Gertrude Stein, Julia Kristeva and modernism', in D. Murray (ed.) Literary Theory and Poetry, London: Batsford, pp. 85-107. Mills, S. (1989b) 'Poetics and linguistics: a critical relation?', Parlance 2(1): 25-35. Mills, S. (1992a) 'Negotiating discourses of femininity', Journal of Gender Studies 1(3) (May): 271-85. Mills, S. (1992b) Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women's Travel Writing and Colonialism, London: Routledge. Mills, S. (1992d) 'Feminist literary theory', in Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 70 (for the year 1989), Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 47-57. Mills, S. (ed.) (1994) Gendering the Reader, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Mills, S. (ed.) (1995) Language and Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Harlow: Longman. Mills, S. and Pearce, L. (1993) 'Feminist literary theory', in Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 71 (for the year 1990), Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 64-90. Mills, S., Pearce, L., Spaull, S. and Millard, E. (1989) Feminist Readings/Feminists Reading,, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester. Minow-Pinkney, M. (1989) Virginia Woolf and the Problem of the Subject: Feminine Writing in the Major Novels, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Modleski, T. (199l) Feminism Without Women: Culture and Criticism in a 'Posfeminist' Age, London: Routledge. Moi, T. (1985) Sexual/Textual Politics, London: Methuen. Montgomery, M. (1986b) 'DJ talk', Media Culture and Society 8(4): 421-40. Morgan, F. (1989) A Misogynist's Source Book, London: Jonathan Cape.
14

Feminist Stylistics

Nilsen, A. P. (1972) 'Sexism in English', in N. Hoffman et al. (eds) Female Studies VI, New York: Feminist Press. Nilsen, A. P. et al. (1977) Sexism and Language, Urbana, IL: NCTE. Oates, J. C. (1986) 'Is there a female voice?', in M. Eagleton (ed.) Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader, Oxford: Blackwell. Pearce, L. (199lb) Woman/Image/Text, Hemel Hampstead: Harvester. Pecheux, M. (1982) Language Semantics and Ideology, London: Macmillan. Pribram, D. (ed.) (1988) Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television, London: Verso. Rajan, R. S. (1994) Imagined Women: Women, Gender, Culture and Postcolonialism, London: Routledge. Rochefort, C. (1981) 'Are women writers still monsters?' in E. Marks and I. de Courtivron (ads) New French Feminisms, Brighton: Harvester, pp. 183-7. Russ, J. (1984) How to Suppress Women's Writing, London: Women's Press. Ryder, M. (1989) 'Feminism and style: still looking for the quick fist', Style 23, 4: 53644. Schultz, M. (1990) 'The semantic derogation of women', extract in D. Cameron (ed.) The Feminist Critique of Language, London: Routledge, pp. 131-17. Shan, Wareing (1994) And then he kissed her: The reclamation of female characters to submissive roles in contemporary fiction. In: Wales, Katie (ed.) Feminist Linguistics in Literary Criticism. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. Shepherd, S. and Wallis, M. (eds) (1989) Coming on Strong: Gay Politics and Culture, London: Unwin Hyman. Showalter, E. (1971) 'Women and the literary curriculum', College English 32: 855 70. Showalter, W. (1978) A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bront to Lessing,, London: Virago. Shute, S. (1981) 'Sexist language and sexism', in M. Vetterling-Braggin (ed.) Sexist Language: a Modern Philosophical Analysis, Totowa, NJ: Littlefield Adams, pp. 23-33. Shuttle, P. and Redgrove, P. (1980) The Wise Wound: Menstruation and Everywoman, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Smith, D. (1990) Texts, Facts and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of Ruling, London: Routledge. Spender, D. (1980) Man-Made Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Spivak, G. C. (1987) In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, London: Methuen. Stanley, L. (ed.) (1990) Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology London: Routledge. Steedman, C. (1986) Landscape for a God Woman, London: Virago. Strainchamps, E. (1971) 'Our sexist language', in V. Gornick et al. (eds) Woman in Sexist Society New York: Basic Books. Sunderland, J. (ed.) (1994) Exploring Gender: Questions and Implications for English Language Education, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice-Hall. Sykes, M. (1985) Discrimination in Discourse. In Dijk, T. A. van (Ed). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Londres: Academic Press Inc. Volume 4. Chapter: 10. Tannen, D. (1991) You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, London: Virago. Thornborrow, J. (1997) Playing Power: Gendered Discourses in a Computer Games Magazine. Language and Literature, vol 6 (1): 43-55. Thornborrow, Joanna (1998) Playing Hard to Get: Metaphor and Representation in the Discourse of Car Advertisements. Language and Literature vol 7 (3), pag 199-215. Thorne, B. and Henley, N. (eds) (1975) Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance, Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Threadgold, T. (1988) 'Language and gender', Australian Journal of Feminist Studies (May): 56 71. Threadgold, T. (1988) 'Stories of race and gender: an unbounded discourse', in D. Birch and M. O'Toole (eds), Functions of Style, London: Pinter, 169204. Tong, R. (1989) Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction, London: Unwin Hyman.
15

Treneman, A. (1988) 'Cashing in on the curse: advertising and the menstrual taboo', in L. Gamman and M. Marshment (ads) The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture, London: Women's Press, pp. 153-65. Trudgill, P. (1972) 'Sex, covert prestige and linguistic choice', Language and Society 1: 179-95. Uspensky, B. (1973) A Poetics of Composition, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Verdonk, P. and Weber J.-J. (1995) Literary Stylistic Criticism of Nineteenth- and TwentiethCentury Prose, London: Routledge. Vetterling-Braggin, M. (ed.) (1981) Sexist Language: a Modern Philosophical Analysis, Totowa, NJ: Littlefield Adams. Voloshinov, V. (1973 [1930]) Marxism and the Philosophy of Language, trans. L. Matejka and I. Titunik, New York: Seminar Press. Wales, K. (ed.) (1994) Feminist Linguistics in Literary Criticism, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. Walsh, Clare (1998) Gender and Mediatized Political Discourse: A Case Study of Press Coverage of Margaret Becketts Campaign for the Labour Leadership in 1994. Language and Literature, vol 7(3), pag 199-215. Ware, V. (1992) Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History, London: Verso. Wareing, S. (1990) 'Women in Fiction - Stylistic Modes of Reclamation', Parlance 2, 2: 72-85. Warhol, R. R. and Herndl, D. P. (eds) (1991) Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. West, C. and Zimmerman, D. H. (1985) Gender, Language and Discourse. In Dijk, T. A. van (Ed). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Londres: Academic Press Inc. Volume 4. Chapter: 10. Williams, P. (1989) 'Difficult subjects: Black British women's poetry', in D. Murray (ed.) Literary Theory and Poetry: Extending the Canon, London: Batsford, pp. 108-26. Williamson, J. (1978) Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising, London: Marion Boyars. Winterson, J. (1992) Written on the Body, London: Jonathan Cape. Wittig, M. (1981) 'One is not born a woman', Feminist Issues 1(2) (Winter); reprinted in (1992) The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 920. Wittig, M. (1983) 'The point of view: universal or particular?', Feminist Issues 3(2) (Fall); reprinted in (1992) The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 59-67. Woolf, V. (1929 [1966]) 'Women and fiction', in Collected Essays, vol. II, London: Hogarth Press. Woolf, V. (1965) Contemporary Writers, London: Hogarth. Woolf, V. (1977) A Room of One's Own, London: Granada. Woolf; V. (1979) Women and Writing, intro. Michele Barrett, London: Women's Press.

16

Feminist Stylistics

E. STYLISTIC CHECKLIST (Source: Mills, 1995) Context and Theoretical Model What sort of text is it? What genre does it belong to? (novel, advertising, newspaper song). Is it a text which has status? (canonical, literary, popular). Is there a tendency for women or men to be associated with this type of text? (as readers, as writers, as representational objects). How is it produced? (Is it authored or produced anonymously?. What is the history of the text? How did you come to read it? (Is it on a reading list; did you buy it, were you given it?). Why are you analysing it? (within an educational institution, for assessment, for pleasure). What general expectations do you have in relation to the text and gender representation? (Consider what expectations the genre and context of the text set up; how stereotypical do you expect the text to be ?).

Gender and Writing Is the style of this genre considered to be feminine or masculine? Are the sentences short or long? Are they composed of subordinate clauses or co-ordinate clauses? How are they linked? By conjunctions such as 'however' or 'nevertheless', or by 'but' and 'and' . Are the verbs used concerned with action, with doing, or with reporting feelings, emotions and what is said?. Is the narration first person or third person, and is that narration from the point of view of a character within the text or is it narrated by a voice external to the text? What style does the text most approach scientific reports, colour supplement journalism, intimate confessional autobiography? What makes you assume that the voice of the author is female or male? Is it intuition (and thus probably drawing on stereotype) or is there some evidence for your assumption? What purpose does knowing that the author is male or female serve for you?

Gender and Reading Does the text address you as male or female? What sort of male or female? White or Black? Straight or gay? Married or single? Young or old Middle-class or working-class? What language items convey this information to you?. Does the text use pronouns such as 'you', 'I' and 'we''. Do you feel that the position which you are reading from is aligned with one of these pronoun positions?. Does the text address you directly in other ways, by referring to your assumed profession, marital status, age, race, interests, 'life-style', wishes/ desires? Are these linked to your supposed gender identity?. Does the text assume that you have certain elements of background knowledge? Make explicit what the text assumes that you know or agree to. Is this background knowledge drawing on stereotypical assumptions about men and women? Are these stereotypical assumptions about all men and women or only certain groups of men and women') ? Does the text assume that you will agree with certain of its statements'? Are these statements about gender?.
17

Do you have to work to make sense of the text? What elements do you have to supply in order for the text to make sense?. Does the text address you in a way which does not include you? Does it implicitly or explicitly address a 'universal' audience, which in fact is only a white male heterosexual audience ir a white female heterosexual audience?. Does the text contain information which could be coded as stereo-typically feminine or masculine? Specify what exactly this information is (technical, emotional, concerned with particular spheres of activity work, home).

Gender and Individual Lexical Items Are the words which are used gender-specific? Is the generic pronoun 'he' used to refer to males in general? Are generic nouns used to refer to males? Is the suffix '-man' used to refer to males? How are males and females named in the text? (surname, first name, diminutives, title) Do any of the terms used to describe males or females have sexual connotations? Do any of the terms used to describe males or females have positive or negative connotations? Do any of the terms used to describe males or females have taboos associated with them?

Gender and Clause Level/Sentence Level Are there statements in the text which are gender-inflected? Are there ready-made phrases which refer to gender difference? Does the text assume you hold certain gendered assumptions? Make explicit what this information consists of. In order to make sense of certain statements do you have to make a bridging assumption drawing on stereotypical gender information? Are metaphors or figurative language used which draw upon gendered assumptions? Are males and females compared with different elements?. Is the text humorous? What propositions do you have to agree to in order to find the text funny? Why is the text using humour? Is it a difficult area? Is the text addressing you as a male? What type of male?. Does the text use doubles entendres? Why does it use them? Analyse the transitivity choices. Are they predominantly material action, intention, supervention, material event, mental, or relational? Are they different for males and females represented in the text? Who acts in the text? Examine the use of passive voice. Are females acted upon more than males or vice versa?

Gender and Discourse Level Are there larger structures in the text which seem to be gendered? . Analyse the male and female characters. Are they described in the same female or male characters are represented? Are they predominantly white or black? Are they predominantly young or old? What sort of relationships are they represented as having? Are there power hierarchies in the test? Do these relate to gender, race, class, or sexual orientation?. Are there narrative pathways which seem to be gender-specific? Do males perform in different ways from females? Are these pathways ones that you have encountered in other texts? Is the text resolved in certain ways which seem to have implications for gender? . Are the bodies of males and females represented as whole or as fragmented parts? As clothed or unclothed?
18

Feminist Stylistics

Whose point of view does the text emanate from? Who is speaking? Who is telling you this? Who does the text focus on? Does the focaliyzation shift at any point in the text? Whose interests does the text seem to be working in? Whose information does the text seem to be endorsing as true?. What elements are associated with males and females in the text?. + To bear in mind: By working through these questions in a systematic way, it will be possible to track down the ways that texts encode gender and the ways that representations of gender may form part of the logic of the text. It may also help us to investigate ways in which gender is dealt with by our society as a whole. This checklist approach is not about providing an index of political correctness, but rather about enabling readers to work through a range of factors which might point up and make more clearly visible some of the implicit or hidden assumptions about gender. Focusing on language either at the level of the word or at the level of discourse can enable us to track down some of these hidden assumptions. Whilst it is clear that stylistic analysis as a simple formal analysis is a thing of the past, this type of analysis where language analysis is enmeshed with a concern with the representation of sexual difference, and/or racial difference, and/or sexual orientation may hold a way forward for the analysis of text. As Carter and Simpson state: 'At the risk of overgeneralization and simplification, we might say that if the 1960s was a decade of formalism in stylistics, the 1970s a decade of functionalism and the 1980s a decade of discourse stylistics, then the 1990s could well become the decade in which sociohistorical and sociocul-tural stylistic studies are a main preoccupation'1 (Carter and Simpson 1989: 17). It is to be hoped that this concern with the sociohistorical and the sociocultural will pervade future work in this field (Mills, 1995:202).

19

PREPARE UNIT IV WITH THE FOLLOWING READINGS: Mills, Sara (1995) Feminist Stylistics. London: Routledge. Basic essential reading in Feminist stylistics. It provides readers with a tool-kit with which to expose gender bias. Also useful for its extensive resource bibliography. Read: Introduction. To study section I.1 Feminist Models of Text, pp. 25-44. To study section I.2; For the answer to exercise CIII. Analysis at the level of the word, pp. 83-128. To study section I.4 Analysis at the level of the phrase and sentence/discourse, pp128-198. To study section I.5

Burton, Deirdre (1982) Through Glass Darkly: Through Dark Glasses: On Stylistics and Political Commitment Via a Study of a Passage from Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar. Reprinted in Jean Jacques Weber (Ed) The Stylistics Reader: From Roman Jakobson to the Present. (1996). London: Arnold, pp 224-240.

20