Essay: An Analysis Of Feminist Stylistics By Fairclough

1194 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: A 6 to 9 paragraph feminist analysis essay

Fairclough (1992: 88) is of the view that “ideologies reside in texts” (p. 88). But it is noe necessary that the discourse would be interpreted in the same way as desired by the producers. Several interpretations can be made of a single piece of discourse. The ideological import may keep on changing with each new interpretation of discourse (Fairclough, 1992: 89). Moreover, Fairclough has highlighted the fact that language is highly manipulative in nature as it is used as an agent of hegemony. By hegemony, the sub-ordinate class is made to think that the dominant group has all the rights to rule over them and to deal them as per their choice and interests. Such mindset is shaped by using several ideological means. Gramsci (1996) opines that the ruling …show more content…

In the beginning, Mills discusses theoretical elements and has labeled this section as “General Theoretical Issues” and the second part is comprised of analysis having three sub chapters. The main section of the book examines feminist models of the text and investigates language typologies. According to Sara Mills, language is a form of social communication, a tool to transfer information and a set of mutually decided linguistic choices in any system (Crystal: 1995, 18). Language functions as sharing of thoughts in a framework where options are equally exclusive. Mills criticizes the traditional method to deal with legendary writings which often neglect the fact that the writer has no command over the stuff, being delivered by him or her. Another drawback of this conventional approach is that only the texts which have literary worth are selected for analysis (e.g. the works of Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, Beckett and so on) and women’s writings for stylistic analysis are often overlooked. TorilMoi (1985) and Elaine Showalter (1978) are of the view that “women’s writings have frequently been barred from standard status, by the procedure named phallocentric

Show More
Related

  • Hegemony In The Prison Notebooks: Case Study

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Prison Notebooks (1971) Gramsci does not associate hegemony with the governance of a solitary individual or any structuralist energy phenomena, such as a discourse, collective conscience, deep structure or culture. Instead, hegemony from a Gramscian perspective signifies a variety of different organizations of people and agents in state formations, such as a structure, a practice, an apparatus, a unity of opposing structures or a function of leadership (Gramsci, 1971). Hegemony is always considered to be a process (Gramsci, 1971). In other contexts, hegemony may refer to a level or moment, which is equal to an evolutionary stage of leadership. Hegemony also may refer to a social grouping related to a particular social, political, cultural,

    Read More

  • A Women's Quest in The Odyssey, A Room Of One's Own, and Northanger Abbey

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Delany, Sheila. Writing Women: Women Writers and Women in Literature: Medieval to Modern. New York: Schocken, 1983.

    Read More

  • The Gender Roles Instilled in Frankenstein and Candide

    1406 Words  | 3 Pages

    For centuries women have been perceived as overshadowed figures who remain in a separate sphere from men. The term “separate spheres” refers to the distinct, conventional characteristics associated with gender differences. The public sphere of men is associated with commerce whereas the domestic sphere for women is linked with the household. However, there is more than just one perspective on feminism. The feminist view is influenced by three main voices: the French, American, and British. French feminists focus their attention on language; American feminists analyze the literary aspects; and British feminists examine the historical processes (Murfin 296-299). Using these perspectives, we can see the oppression of women conveyed in many different texts throughout literature and in history. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for instance, exhibits not only a feminist view in the text, but also in society during Shelley’s time period as displayed by her negotiations with the separate spheres. Voltaire’s Candide also conveys powerful gender differences and reveals the oppression of women throughout the novel. Therefore, a correlation can be seen between the view of women in the two novels and how it reflects the culture and time period in which the novels were written.

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Culture In Brazil

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gramsci conceived of hegemony when he was imprisoned by Mussolini’s Fascist regime. He was interested in understanding how a state could remain in power and maintain its control even when so many people were oppressed by it. Gramsci developed his concept of hegemony to understand how forces of power can lead people in the lower class to maintain the status quo rather than rebel against it even in the face of oppression. He maintained that control does not always happen through violence or political and economic coercion but also through ideology. He states that hegemony is the “political leadership...consent in the life and activities of the state and civil society” (Gramsci SPN Q10,I§12). In this sense, Hegemony is defined as, “the ‘spontaneous’ consent given by the great masses of the population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant fundamental group” (Lears 1985: 568).

    Read More

  • Gender: Annotated Bibliography

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.

    Read More

  • Anne Rowlandson The American Voice Analysis

    1472 Words  | 3 Pages

    Much discrimination and misogyny still permeate our social stratosphere, but while reading written words one cannot help but to be placed in the author’s shoes, and therefore accept their words as our own. Cain writes, “Many of the texts written by women during this time reflect the idea that there are natural differences between the sexes. Usually a female narrator…privately addresses a mainly female audience about issues that might seem mainly to concern women” (825). Because the text is written in a female voice, the reading adapts themselves to that voice, and gives credit to the

    Read More

  • The History of Feminine Fiction:Exploring Laura Runge’s Article, Gendered Strategies in the Criticism of Early Fiction

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gendered strategies, in the criticism of early fiction, made feminine fiction incapable of excellence. By using conventional heterosexual relationships in their prefaces, authors only succeed in supporting the masculine control over fiction. The appraisals women gained only reinforced their inferior status. "Criticism placed female authors in a specific and confined critical sphere, while it located male authors in an other, more respected field" (375). By aligning their works with popular male literature, women inadvertently strengthened male authority. Women were only granted recognition in terms of their limited social stature. It is these gendered values and strategies that makes the history of the novel and feminine achievement difficult to assess.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Gender Essay by Myra Jehlen

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    conceptualizations of gender in literature are situated in a culture and historical context ; the

    Read More

  • Gender Role In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    To understand Smith’s essay, Smith feels it is important to be aware of her use of the word Ideology. For her the word has two different meanings “to mean not only a conscious system of meaning, e...

    Read More

  • The Effects of Femininity

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.

    Read More

  • Letters to Jane and Sappho: An Exploration of the Way Women Write

    2246 Words  | 5 Pages

    While reading the poetry of Sappho, it is clear that some poems might be read as having a strictly sexual interpretation; however, I much prefer to interpret her writings as more of a correspondence, mostly one sided, between her and the women with whom she interacted with daily. Some of those had left the town and were beyond reach. Sappho’s poems read much more like intimate notes to friends than risqué love poetry. She is a woman who writes for herself and for other women, much like Jane Austen did in the beginning of the nineteenth century. “Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much a higher degree; the pen has been in their hands,” says Anne Elliot, the protagonist of Persuasion (Austen 223). Austen wrote novels about women, and men, but the focus was more on the women’s lives and roles. She wrote novels that were meant to be read by women. In today’s society, the idea has arisen that Jane Austen books and the films based on them are “chick flicks,” and most men will refuse to read or watch them. From the scholars who write on Sappho, it seems that there is a generalized trend that male scholars tend to see her poetry in the more modern sense of the word lesbian, while female scholars make more allowances and believe her work to be more about communication and relationships between women.

    Read More

  • Comparing Women´s Images in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening

    3073 Words  | 7 Pages

    There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf

    Read More

  • Shakespeare Sister

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    What are the psychological and physical conditions to compose a fiction work? Why Shakespeare plays are not pen by women? These fascinating and frivolous questions are posed in “Shakespeare Sister” an excerpt from Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Woolf develops a real pragmatics of feminist on daily base. An efficient that women face for centuries, such as women’s rights in education.

    Read More

  • Virgina Woolf and Feminism

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    In A Room of One's Own the narrator begins an exploration of women in literature. She attempts to answer many questions regarding women. The first being why is literature about women written by men. She also critiques the scholarship of the great men of literature.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Fairclough, Teun Van Dijk And Ruth Wodak

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fairclough’s Dialectical-Relational Approach to CDA is an essentially Marxist framework, anchored in his (1989, 1995) research on language, ideology and power, an approach that has been central to CDA for over more than the past ten years. Fairclough highlights the semiotic reflection of social issues in discourses, which translates into his interest in social processes (i.e. social structures, practices and events). Fairclough

    Read More

More about Essay: An Analysis Of Feminist Stylistics By Fairclough

Open Document