Seminar in English Language Studies: Language & Gender

English 634

Seminar in English Language Studies: Language & Gender

Spring 2011

W 3:30-6:10, CRT 108

Instructor: Patricia Mayes

Office Hours: W 1-3 & by appointment

Office: 486 Curtin Hall, ext. 6992

E-mail:

Course Description

Robin Lakoff’s seminal article, “Language and Woman’s Place,” argued that the language women use, for example, hedges (sort of and I guess) and tag questions (It’s great, isn’t it?), has, in part, been responsible for excluding them from positions of power and authority. This argument claims that in essence language is a tool of oppression through which the gender norms that keep women in their place are continuously reenacted. Although many people still believe that gender consists of a set of immutable characteristics and that the way we use language merely reflects these, this course will challenge these ideas, as we examine the role of language in constructing gender identities. We will begin by examining how several feminist theories have dealt with the relationship between language and gender. We will also look at how various methodologies have been used to research this topic, beginning with quantitative studies in sociolinguistics and moving to the current focus on language use in communities of practice. Other questions to be explored include how gender ideologies interact with other social constructs such as culture, age, ethnicity, sexuality, and social class. Students do not need previous training in linguistics, sociology, or gender studies. This course satisfies the capstone requirement for a research seminar for seniors.

Required Texts

Course packet available from Clark Graphics, 2915 N. Oakland Ave. (962-4633)

Courses Requirements

Note: I prefer hard copies of written work. In some cases, there will be folders set up in the dropbox to submit assignments, but please don’t e-mail your work to me.

Reading, Class Participation, and Discussion Board

A significant part of this course is based on the readings and in-class discussions. You will be expected to actively engage in the learning experience by doing the readings and participating in the class discussions and activities. In addition because this is a research seminar, you should have as much control as possible. Therefore, our class discussions will be partially based on student-generated ideas and questions. During weeks 7-13, there will a student discussion leader, who will come up with some questions that we’ll discuss in class. For the week you lead the discussion, you’ll need to post your questions on the D2L discussion board by noon on the Tues before the class. Everyone should read and think about the questions before class.

Reading Responses (Graduate Students Only)

Graduate students will submit written responses to the readings five times during the semester.

In-class Activities

We will be doing some in-class activities and discussions in groups. Three or four of these will be graded. In some cases you will hand in the work that your group has done at the end of the class period, and in other cases, it will be submitted through the dropbox on the D2L site.

Annotated Bibliography and Proposal for Final Project

In order to prepare for your final project, you will submit an annotated bibliography and a paper proposal. Your annotated bibliography should include at least seven references related to your topic, five of which are not on the list of required readings for this class. Read your references and write an annotation for each one. Your annotations should be 1-2 paragraphs long and address the following:

1. State the title and author(s) of the article (or book).

2. State what the topic is, including the author’s research questions.

3. Explain why the topic is important to the field and how it relates to the issues discussed in class.

4. State the findings.

5. Say what the significance or implications of these findings is for the topic you have chosen to investigate. If after reading the piece you have found that it has little significance for your topic, be sure to say that.

Note that annotated bibliographies, like regular (unannotated) bibliographies, are in alphabetical order according to the last name of the first author. At the end of the annotations, write a proposal for your final paper topic. State your research question(s), method and data (if applicable), what you hope to find, and the implications for the study of language and gender.

Final Project Presentations

During the last week of class, everyone will have a chance to present their final projects. Plan to do a 15-minute presentation and receive feedback that will be useful for your papers.

Final Papers

The final project provides an opportunity to research and discuss a particular area of language and gender in more depth than we will in class. There are several options for the final paper: (1) a critical review of the literature concerning some well-defined topic in language and gender; (2) an empirical research paper focusing on data analysis; and (3) a hybrid of the first two options, which is essentially a literature review in which you cite your own examples. For all of these options, your annotated bibliography should provide the relevant foundation for your topic. The expected length for undergraduate students is 10-12 pages and for graduate students, 12-15 pages (double-spaced). There will be a separate handout that describes the final project in more detail.

Grading

Undergraduates

Attendance & participation10%

Discussion leader10%

In-class Activities20%

Annotated bibliography and paper proposal25%

Presentation10%

Final paper25%

Graduate Students

Class participation 5%

Discussion leader10%

In-class Activities20%

Reading Responses15%

Annotated bibliography and paper proposal20%

Presentation10%

Final paper25%

Course Policies

1. Attendance: Although there is no formal attendance requirement, your participation grade will be adversely affected if you do not attend. If you are absent, you are responsible for obtaining materials distributed during class and for submitting assignments on time.

2. Assignments: I do not accept e-mailed assignments. Electronic copies are acceptable, but they must be submitted in the dropbox on D2L, not sent by e-mail. Electronic submissions should be in Word or RTF format. You can also hand in hard (paper) copies. Copies of all course documents will be made available on the course D2L site. Please be sure to put your name on all of your assignments, even if it is in the dropbox as a file saved under your name.

3. Late assignments, incompletes, etc: The policies stated below (in italics) have been determined by UWM. I will simply follow them:

The principle of equal treatment of all students shall be a fundamental guide in responding to requests for special consideration. No student should be given an opportunity to improve a grade that is not made available to all members of the class. This policy is not intended to exclude reasonable accommodation of verified student disability, or the completion of work missed as the result of religious observance, verified illness, or justified absence due to circumstances beyond the student's control. … Examples of unacceptable opportunities for an individual student include extra work, retaking an examination, taking an extra examination, or an extension of time on an assignment or examination.

If you will be unable to complete an assignment on time as the result of one of the acceptable causes listed above, I will expect you to contact me as soon as the problem becomes apparent. This means that, except in extraordinary circumstances (like being in an emergency room somewhere, or stranded on a roadside), you should notify me before you actually miss the due date. If you follow the procedures for notifying me, and if the reason for the absence meets the criteria outlined above, I will arrange for you to make up the exam or turn in the assignment late. Otherwise, you will not receive any credit for the exam or assignment.

An incomplete may be given to a student who has carried a subject successfully until near the end of the semester but, because of illness or other unusual and substantiated cause beyond that student's control, has been unable to take or complete the final examination or to complete some limited amount of term work. An incomplete is not given unless the student proves to the instructor that s/he was prevented from completing course requirements for just cause as indicated above.

If you need special accommodation due to a disability, religious observance, or military duty, contact me as soon as possible. For more information on university policies, go to the following web site: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf

Tentative Schedule

Note: Readings should be done before the class meets on the date they are listed.

Week 1 (1/26): Introduction and Background

Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, Introduction & Chapter 1[1]

Part 1: Approaches & Methodologies

Week 2 (2/2): The Historical Context & An Overview of Current Approaches

Sunderland, Unit B2
Speer, “Gender and Language”
Sunderland & Litosseliti, “Current Research Methodologies in Gender and Language Study: Key Issues”

Recommended: Lakoff, “Language & Women’s Place”; Tannen, “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation”[2]

Week 3 (2/9): Variationist Sociolinguistics

Coates, “Quantitative Studies”
Hultgren, “Researching the Sex Dichotomy in Language and Gender Research: Some Advantages of Using Correlational Sociolinguistics”

Week 4 (2/16): Corpus Linguistics

Baker, “‘Eligible’ Bachelors and ‘Frustrated’ Spinsters: Corpus Linguistics Gender, and Language”
Harrington, “Perpetuating Difference? Corpus Linguistics and the Gendering of Reported Dialogue

Week 5 (2/23): Conversation Analysis

Kitzinger, “Conversation Analysis: Technical Matters for Gender Research”
Kitzinger & Frith, “‘Just Say No?’ The Use of Conversation Analysis in Developing a Feminist Perspective on Sexual Refusal”

Recommended: West & Zimmerman, “Small Insults: A study of Interruptions in Cross-Sex Conversations between Unacquainted Persons”

Week 6 (3/2): Ethnographic and Practice-based Approaches

Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, Chapter 2
Swann & Maybin, “Sociolinguistic and Ethnographic Approaches to Language and Gender”

Part 2: Linguistic Resources & The Construction of Gender

Week 7 (3/9): The Grammatical Construction of Gender

Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, Chapter 8
Clark, “The Linguistics of Blame: Representations of Women in the Sun’s Reporting of Crimes of Sexual Violence”

Recommended: Bucholtz, “Purchasing Power: The Gender and Class Imaginary on the Shopping Channel.”

Week 8 (3/16): The Metaphorical Construction of Gender

Hines, “Rebaking the Pie: The Women as Dessert Metaphor”
Cohn, “Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals”

Week of 3/21: Spring Break

Week 9 (3/30): The Interactional Construction of Gender

Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, Chapter 3
Edley & Wetherell, “‘Jockeying for Position’: The Construction of Masculine Identities”
Herring, “The Rhetorical Dynamics of Gender Harassment On-Line”

Part 3: Topics in Language & Gender Research

Week 10 (4/6): Language, Gender, & Social Positioning

Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, Chapter 5
Mills, “Class, Gender, and Politeness”

Recommended: Ochs, “Indexing Gender”

Due: Annotated bibliography

Week 11 (4/13): Language, Gender, & Culture

Kamada, “Discursive ‘Embodied’ Identities of ‘Half’ Girls in Japan: A Multi-perspectival Approach”
Jacobs-Huey, “Constructing and Contesting Knowledge in Women’s Cross-Cultural Hair Testimonies”

Recommended: Okamoto, “‘Tasteless’ Japanese: Less ‘Feminine’ Speech among Young Japanese Women.”

Week 12 (4/20): Language, Gender, & Sexuality

Sauntson, “The Contributions of Queer Theory to Gender and Language Research”
Speer (2010), “Passing as a Transsexual Woman in the Gender Identity Clinic”

Recommended: Liang, “The Creation of Coherence in Coming-Out Stories.”

Week 13 (4/27): Challenges to Normative Gender Constructions (in the workplace)

Hall, “Lip Service on the Fantasy Line”
Toerien & Kitzinger, “Emotional Labour in Action: Navigating Multiple Involvements in the Beauty Salon”

Week 14 (5/4): Challenges to Normative Gender Constructions (continued)

McElhinny, “Challenging Hegemonic Masculinities: Female and Male Police Officers Handling Domestic Violence”

Week 15 (5/11): Student Presentations

Final papers due in my mailbox by 5:00 pm on M (5/16)

Course Packet Contents

Sunderland, Jane. (2006). Language and Gender: An Advanced Resource Book. London: Routledge. (Unit B2)

Speer, Susan. (2005). Gender Talk: Feminism, Discourse and Conversation Analysis. London and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 2)

Sunderland, Jane & Litosseliti, Lia (2008). “Current Research Methodologies in Gender and Language Study: Key Issues.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 1-18. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Coates, Jennifer (2004). Women, Men, and Language. (Chapter 4)

Hultgren, Anna Kristina. (2008). “Researching the Sex Dichotomy in Language and Gender Research: Some Advantages of Using Correlational Sociolinguistics.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 29-42. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Baker, Paul (2008). “‘Eligible’ Bachelors and ‘Frustrated’ Spinsters: Corpus Linguistics Gender, and Language.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 73-84. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Harrington, Kate. (2008). “Perpetuating Difference? Corpus Linguistics and the Gendering of Reported Dialogue.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 85-102. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kitzinger, Celia. (2008). “Conversation Analysis: Technical Matters for Gender Research.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 119-138. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kitzinger, Celia & Frith, Hannah. (1999) “Just Say No? The Use of Conversation Analysis in Developing a Feminist Perspective on Sexual Refusal.” Discourse and Society 10: 293-316.

Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 2)

Swann, Joan & Maybin, Janet. (2008). “Sociolinguistic and Ethnographic Approaches to Language and Gender.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 21-28. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 8)

Clark, Kate. (1998). “The Linguistics of Blame: Representations of women in the Sun’s reporting of crimes of sexual violence.” In Cameron, Deborah (ed.), The Feminist Critique of Language, pp. 183-197. London and New York: Routledge.

Hines, Caitlin. (1999). “Rebaking the Pie: The Woman as Dessert Metaphor.” In Bucholtz, Mary, Liang, A.C., &. Sutton, Laurel A. (eds.), Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse, pp. 145-162. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cohn, Carol. (1987). “Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 12 (4): 687-718.

Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 3)

Edley, Nigel & Wetherell, Margaret. (1997). “Jockeying for Position: The Construction of Masculine Identities.” Discourse and Society 8: 203-217.

Herring, Susan. (1999). The Rhetorical Dynamics of Gender Harassment On-Line. The Information Society 15: 151-167.

Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 5)

Mills, Sara. (2004). “Class, Gender, and Politeness.” Multilingua 23: 171-190.

Kamada, Laurel D. (2008). “Discursive ‘Embodied’ Identities of ‘Half’ Girls in Japan: A Multi-perspectival Approach.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 174-190. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jacobs-Huey, Lanita. (2006). From the Kitchen to the Parlor: Language and Becoming in African American Women’s Hair Care. Oxford University Press. (Chapter 6)

Sauntson, Helen. (2008). “The Contributions of Queer Theory to Gender and Language Research.” In Harrington, Kate, Litosseliti, Lia, Sauntson, Helen, & Sunderland, Jane (eds.), Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 271-282. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Speer, Susan. (2010). “Passing as a Transsexual Woman in the Gender Identity Clinic.” In Wetherell, Margaret (ed.), Theorizing Identities and Social Action, pp. 116-138. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hall, Kira. (1995). “Lip Service on the Fantasy Line.” In Hall, Kira & Bucholtz, Mary (eds.), Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self, pp. 183-216. New York and London: Routledge.

Toerien, Merran & Kitzinger, Celia. (2007). “Emotional Labour in Action: Navigating Multiple Involvements in the Beauty Salon.” Sociology 41: 645-662.

McElhinny, Bonnie S. (1995). “Challenging Hegemonic Masculinities: Female and Male Police Officers Handling Domestic Violence.” In Hall, Kira & Bucholtz, Mary (eds.), Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self, pp. 217-243. New York and London: Routledge.

Materials on E-Reserve

Bucholtz, Mary. (1999). “Purchasing Power: The Gender and Class Imaginary on the Shopping Channel.” In Mary Bucholtz, A. C. Liang, and Laurel Sutton (eds.), pp. 348-368, Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse. Oxford University Press.

Lakoff, Robin. (2004). “Language and Woman’s Place.” In Mary Bucholtz (ed.), pp. 39-119. Language and Woman’s Place New York: Harper and Row. (The Original Text, first published in 1975.)

Liang, A.C. (1997). “The Creation of Coherence in Coming-Out Stories.” In Anna Livia and Kira Hall (eds.), pp. 287-309, Queerly Phrased: Language Gender and Sexuality. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ochs, Elinor. (1992) “Indexing gender.” In Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin (eds.), pp. 335-358, Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon.

Okamoto, Shigeko. (1995). “‘Tasteless’ Japanese: Less ‘Feminine’ Speech among Young Japanese Women.” In Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds.), pp. 297-325, Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. New York and London: Routledge.

Tannen, Deborah. (1990). You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. (Preface, Chapters 1, 2, & 7)

West, Candace and Zimmerman, Don. (1983). “Small Insults: A Study of Interruptions in Cross-Sex Conversations between Unacquainted Persons.” In Barrie Thorne, Cheris Kramarae, and Nancy Henley (eds.), pp. 102-117, Language, Gender and Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

[1] These readings are in the folder for Week 1 on the course D2L site.

[2] Recommended readings are extra readings, not included in the course packet, which are on e-reserve at the library.