Women about Women: Genderlect Manifestations Through Positive and Negative Self-Stereotypes in Contemporary Fiction
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Latvia
Abstract
ENG: The article re-actualises genderlect as one of the key points of malefemale
differentiation and a relevant object in the humanities, not merely
from the perspective of gender studies but linguistic and literary ones. Selfstereotypes
in the speech of one or another gender may be considered the result of
the complex interaction of collective identity and the subconscious. The excerpts
from the selected novels by Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Crusie, Lisa Kleypas,
Aleksandar Hemon, Zadie Smith and Candace Bushnell have provided a wide
range of patterns of expressing self-stereotypes in the dimension of ‘women about
women’. To emphasise the multicultural nature of genderlect self-stereotypes,
writers of different ethnic affiliations are represented. The article also classifies
the criteria of self-stereotype polarisation in characters’ speech to explicate
the strategies of women’s verbal behaviour. These criteria include marital status,
maternal experience, professional activity, ageism and harassment. The impact of
gender on verbal behaviour, observed in real life and adapted to fiction through
literary representation, is manifested in communication stereotypes. This serves
to illuminate the most representative speech self-stereotypes, which make
certain images or ideas easier to interpret. The application of an interdisciplinary
approach with a set of appropriate methods to theorising and practising genderlect
reveals its role as a significant tool for reconstructing a linguistic worldview and
contextualises both positive and negative self-stereotypes for the expressive
evaluation of speech in fictional discourse.
Description
O. Bohovyk: ORCID 0000-0003-4315-2154; A. Bezrukov: ORCID 0000-0001-5084-6969, V. Yashkina: ORCID 0000-0003-0570-8772
Keywords
author, English-language fiction, female, gender, novel, speech pattern, КФП
Citation
Bohovyk O. A., Bezrukov A. V., Yashkina V. Women about Women: Genderlect Manifestations Through Positive and Negative Self-Stereotypes in Contemporary Fiction. Baltic Journal of English Language, Literature and Culture. 2023. Vol. 13. P. 18–34. DOI: 10.22364/BJELLC.13.2023.02.