Gendered body language in children’s literature over time
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Authors
Čermáková, Anna
Mahlberg, Michaela
Publication Date
2022-01-18Journal Title
Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics
ISSN
0963-9470
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Pages
096394702110721-096394702110721
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
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Čermáková, A., & Mahlberg, M. (2022). Gendered body language in children’s literature over time. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 096394702110721-096394702110721. https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470211072154
Abstract
In this paper, we study gendered patterns of body language descriptions in children’s fiction. We compare a corpus of 19th-century children’s literature with a corpus of contemporary fiction for children. Using a corpus linguistic approach, we study gendered five-word body part clusters, that is, repeated sequences of words that contain at least one body part noun and a marker of gender. Our aim is to identify and describe differences between the description of male and female body language across both corpora. We find that in the 19th century, there are not only fewer clusters for female characters, but the functional range of these clusters is also limited. The contemporary data suggests a trend for male and female clusters to become more similar with the clusters illustrating an increasing range of options for the description of female characters and their interactional spaces.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470211072154
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333534
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