Feminist Linguistics in Literary Criticism [Hardcover]

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.Contributors: Clara Calvo, Lesley Jeffries, Marion Lomax, Sara Mills, Louise Sylvester, Anne Varty, Shan WareingEssays employing close scrutiny of texts to clarify gender issues in feminist literary criticism.Introduction: Feminist Linguistics in Literary Criticism - Katie WalesIn Defence of Celia: Discourse Analysis and Women's Discourse in As You Like It - Clara CalvoLanguage in Common: Apposition in Contemporary Poetry by Women - Lesley JeffriesGendered Writing and the Writer's Stylistic Identity - Marion LomaxAnd Then He Kissed Her: The Reclamation of Female Characters to Submissive Roles in Contemporary Fiction - Shan WareingClose Encounters of a Feminist Kind: Transitivity Analysis and Pop Lyrics - Sara MillsFrom Queens to Convicts: Status, Sex and Language in Contemporary British Women's Drama - Anne VartyWomen, Men and Words: Lexical Choices in Two Fairy Tales of the 1920s - Louise Sylvester