1. Varieties of English, Week 18 Goldsmiths, University of London
Feminist Stylistics
Varieties of English, Week 18
Goldsmiths, University of London

2. Outline
Traditional stylistics, feminist stylistics, and critical linguistics
Feminist models of text
Gender and reading
Analysis at clause/sentence level
Transitivity
Presuppositions

3. Previously
Language and gender
Critical linguistics/
CDA

4. Today Feminist theory Traditional stylistics
Critical linguistics/critical discourse analysis

5. Feminist stylistics
examine how gender (difference) is encoded in texts
raise awareness and contribute towards change of gender representations
highlight oppressive ideologies about gender in texts/language use
explore construction of gendered subject positions/roles in texts
describe sexism/gender issues in text not only on a content level but:
analyse how point of view, agency, metaphor, transitivity are linked to matters of gender  provide toolkit for analysis
explore validity of claim that writing practices are gendered

6. Feminist stylistics
carry out analysis of language choices which contributes to (critic’s/reader’s) understanding of text meaning and process of reader interpretation
extend to multimodal analysis: focus beyond language; e.g. visual images
explore the interrelation between language and sociohistorical context
but: not just description of this relationship but highlights how language can be used as a form of social control

7. Feminist stylistics
build on Michael Halliday’s systemic linguistics: social quality of language
show that meaning of text ‘is the result of a process of negotiations and a set of relations between the social system within which the text is produced and consumed, the writer and the reader’ (Mills 1995: 10)
show that what seem like “individual/personal” language choices (of writers and readers) are determined by social forces

8. Gender and Reading Exploration of gendered positioning of the reader
Argues that reader is frequently positioned as male
Even if reader is positioned as female – still ‘address is destined for a male as voyeur’ (67) Examples? Agree/disagree?
Dominant vs. resistant reading of texts:

9. Gender and Reading
‘It addresses the reader either in a direct or indirect way, and presents certain ways of interpretation as the most likely to make sense of the text, what I shall be calling the ‘dominant reading’. (Mills 1995: 67)

10. Dominant Readings
The self evident, commonsense reading, that is based on the ideologies circulating within a given society at a particular time. It is the one readers usually choose. The dominant reading ‘makes sense’ because of the larger stories circulating within society. For example, many advertisements in women’s magazines ‘make sense’ according to particular ideas about femininity (think of skincare advertisements or those for hair colorants).

11. Positioning the reader as male
It is argued (see Fetterley, 1981; Showalter, 1977) that women very often read as men because literature constructs a male reader. So a woman may not perceive a text to be sexist as she is used to read it from a (stereotypically) male perspective.

12. The resisting reader
Readers may not accept what is presented in a dominant reading but may construct an oppositional reading. Resisting dominant readings positions may enable the reader to feel empowered, rather than just be a passive recipient of information. It is also possible to accept some of the values or ideologies of a particular text but question or reject others. This is called a negotiated reading.

17. Feminist (Stylistic) Analysis at the level of the clause/sentence
ready-made sentences (proverbs)
presupposition and inferences; implicatures
metaphors
jokes and humour (e.g. double entendres)
transitivity choices
ideology

18. Transitivity
1) The Process – material, mental, (verbal) or relational (= verb phrases)
2) The Participants in the process (= noun phrases)
3) The Circumstances of the process (= adverbials)
 Who acts (agent) and who is acted upon (who is affected):

19. Transitivity: processes
(material),, ‘She swam across the river’;
those which take place largely in the mind
(mental), ‘She thought about the situation’;
(relational) those which simply relate two elements together, for example, ‘It is rather cold’.

20. Transitivity: processes
‘material action intention’ and ‘material action supervention’: with material action intention, there is a clear will to do something, for example, ‘I broke the window, in order to get into the house’; but with supervention there is an attempt to capture for analysis those verbal processes where things are not done intentionally, for example, ‘I broke my favourite glasses’.

21. Transitivity: Example
‘I know more about myself than I ever did, I know that I – ‘ She raised her head, let her eyes meet his. ‘I know that I love you,’ she ended silently. ‘oh, Bob - ’ She held out her hand.
He grasped it, took both her hands, held them tightly, felt her draw him near. His arms went around her, and he kissed her mouth, her eyes, her cheeks, her slender neck, her mouth again – long kisses lingering on yielding lips. Her arms encircled him pressing him closer.

22. Transitivity: Questions
Who acts in the text? (Balance of male and female actors?)
· Which processes dominate? (material, mental etc..)
· Who is acted upon? who/what is affected? (body parts/whole person etc.)
· Does low transitivity always reflect passivity? (regardless of context)?
· (What) does transitivity analysis tell us about a text’s ideological messages?

25. Presuppositions - smaller scale assumptions – based on sentence level
- “necessary pre-conditions for the sentence being true or false” (Stubbs 1983: 203)
- significant tool to create fictional worlds in literature and non-literary genres
- Brown and Yule (in Mills 1995: 131) argue that meaning of phrases consists of
--- speaker/writer intention
--- assumptions (drawing on different types of background knowledge relevant to situation, including ideological)
--- inferences

26. Presuppositions (every –day language)
That gorgeous girl/guy was at the party last night.
That gorgeous girl/guy wasn’t at the party last night.
 presupposes that girl/guy was gorgeous.
Tony stopped laughing
Tony didn't stop laughing
 presupposes that Tony had been/was laughing.

27. Triggering presupposition
1) factive verbs: know, realise, find out, discover, regret, be proud/ sorry that; being aware of/that
2) change of state verbs: stop, continue, keep, start, begin
3) questions: why, what, how, where…
4) definite noun phrases: the.., that.., these..; my.., your.. = existential presupposition
*5) verbs indicating fiction: pretend, imagine, dream, if….
*6) implicative verbs: manage; forget

28. Presupposition: example

29. Presupposition: example
The presuppositions are:
1 that you are not happy with your looks;
2 that this woman is happy with her looks;
3 that this woman has had surgery.
The inference is:
1 if you want to be happy with your looks you will need surgery

30. Presupposition: Example
We make fairy tales come true