A Feminist Stylistic Analysis of Doris Lessing's  The Fifth Child (1988)

Zahra Rahimnouri; Azra Ghandehariun

doi:10.24071/joll.v20i2.2586

A Feminist Stylistic Analysis of Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child (1988)

Zahra Rahimnouri^(1*), Azra Ghandehariun⁽²⁾,

(1) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
(2) Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study is a feminist stylistic analysis of The Fifth Child (1988). This study attempts to combine literary and linguistic theories by using the feminist stylistic approach of feminist stylisticians. This study investigates the lexico-semantic items in narration, gendered sentences, and items such as metaphors, adjectives, and their frequency, grammar, and different lexical items such as those related to colors. Also, Short's ideas about powerful/ powerless were used to discuss the dynamic of power in the relationship between Harriet and David. Through this analysis, female ideologies of the novel were also analyzed and discussed. Feminist stylistic theories were applied to explain how Harriet's language and description represent her passivity, obedience, and dependence. This study evaluates the grammatical and lexical components of the 'female sentence' to discover that female writing is unique and different from male writing. We inferred the author’s feminist style through how Harriet is described as a traditional, old-fashioned, powerless, and subordinated woman. Harriet accepts the dominance of men and persuades readers to sympathize Harriet whom everyone blames for giving birth to an abnormal child who causes too much trouble for everyone.

Keywords

feminist stylistics; metaphor; grammar; lexis

Full Text:

PDF

References

Angelova, N. (2014). Data Pruning (Master’s Arikan, S. (2017). Angela Carter’s the Bloody Chamber: A feminist stylistic approach. Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 26(2), 117-130.

Hiatt, M. (1977). The way women write. New York: Teachers’ College Press.

Holmes, J. (1984). Hedging your bets and sitting on the fence: Some evidence for hedges as support structures. Te Reo, 27(1), 47-62.

Islam, M. S. (2013). Anticipating apocalypse: Power structures and the periphery in Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child and Ben, in the World. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 10(1), 278-29.

Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. ‏

Lakoff, R. T. (1975). Language and women’s place. New York: Harper Colophon Books.

Lessing, D. (2010). The fifth child. New York: Vintage.

Leonardi, S. J. (1986). Bare places and ancient blemishes: Virginia Woolf's search for a new language in Night and Day. Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 19(2), 150-163.

Milroy, L. (1987). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.

Mills, S. (1995). Feminist stylistics. London: Routledge.

Montoro, R. (2014). Feminist stylistics. In M. Burke (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics, 326-361. Oxon: Routledge.

Raefipour, N. (2012). Ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors. Epiphany, 5(1), 71-82.

Shah, S. K., Zahid, S., Shakir, A., & Rafique, S. (2014). Representation of women in Mann O Salwa: A case study through feminist stylistic analysis. Research on humanities and social sciences, 4(7), 90-105.

Tannen, D. (1991). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. London: Virago.

Trudgill, P. (1972). Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. Language in society, 1(2), 179-195.

Ufot, B. G. (2012). Feminist stylistics: A lexico-grammatical study of the female sentence in Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Hume-Sotomi's The General's Wife. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(12), 2460.

Vetterling-Braggin, M. (1981). Sexist language: A modern philosophical analysis. Totowa: Littlefield Adams.

Westlund, A. C. (2018). Relational autonomy and practical authority. In T. A. Van Dijk (Ed.), Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 4, 103-124. London: Academic Press.

Zhao, K. (2012). A narrative analysis of Lessing's The Fifth Child. Theory & Practice in Language Studies, 2(7), 1498-1502.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v20i2.2586