Research Article

A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power

Volume: 6 Number: 2 December 30, 2024

A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power

Abstract

As there is social, political, and economic sexism, there is also linguistic sexism. The last one cannot be discovered by traditional feminist analysis, but by subjecting a text to a linguistic analysis as the feminist stylistic analysis. The present paper offers a feminist stylistic analysis of one contemporary novel to show how some lexical choices can be described as sexist and how their uses affect the representation of women negatively. To meet this aim, Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power is selected as a sample. It is qualitatively approached from a feminist stylistic point of view. A close reading of the text is conducted to find out the gendered biased uses of language at the level of words to relate their selection to gender meanings. Results show that the text is not free from lexical linguistic sexism. However, it is produced in the golden age of feminism and its main theme revolves around empowering women with electrical power to control the world. The researcher attributes the disability of avoiding using sexist language to social and cultural factors that overwhelm the consciousness of writers and make them unwillingly choose sexist words.

Keywords

References

  1. Alderman, N. (2016). The Power. Penguin books.
  2. Al-Sakkaf, M. Gh. & Öztürk, A. S. (2024). Female Depiction Through the Choice of Transitivity in English Fiction: A Feminist Stylistic Study. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 13(1), 18-35. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v13i1.3313
  3. Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York: Routledge.
  4. Cixous, H. (1975). The laugh of the Medusa. Feminisms redux: An anthology of literary theory and criticism, 416-431
  5. Cameron, D. (2007). The myth of Mars and Venus. Oxford University Press, USA.
  6. Kayani, A. I., & Anwar, B. (2022). Fragmentation and Gender Representation: A Feminist Stylistic Analysis of Faruqi's The Mirror of Beauty. Journal of Gender and Social Issues, 21(1), 29-44.
  7. Kristeva, J. (2024). Revolution in poetic language. Columbia University Press.
  8. Rahimnouri, Z., & Ghandehariun, A. (2020). A feminist stylistic analysis of Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child (1988). Journal of language and literature, 20(2), 221-230.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

World Languages, Literature and Culture (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

December 30, 2024

Submission Date

October 9, 2024

Acceptance Date

December 24, 2024

Published in Issue

Year 2024 Volume: 6 Number: 2

APA
Alsakkaf, G. M., & Ozturk, A. S. (2024). A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, 6(2), 31-40. https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP
AMA
1.Alsakkaf GM, Ozturk AS. A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power. EJELL. 2024;6(2):31-40. https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP
Chicago
Alsakkaf, Ghazal Mansoor, and Abdul Serdar Ozturk. 2024. “A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power”. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature 6 (2): 31-40. https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP.
EndNote
Alsakkaf GM, Ozturk AS (December 1, 2024) A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature 6 2 31–40.
IEEE
[1]G. M. Alsakkaf and A. S. Ozturk, “A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power”, EJELL, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 31–40, Dec. 2024, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP
ISNAD
Alsakkaf, Ghazal Mansoor - Ozturk, Abdul Serdar. “A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power”. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature 6/2 (December 1, 2024): 31-40. https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP.
JAMA
1.Alsakkaf GM, Ozturk AS. A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power. EJELL. 2024;6:31–40.
MLA
Alsakkaf, Ghazal Mansoor, and Abdul Serdar Ozturk. “A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power”. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, vol. 6, no. 2, Dec. 2024, pp. 31-40, https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP.
Vancouver
1.Ghazal Mansoor Alsakkaf, Abdul Serdar Ozturk. A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Naomi Alderman’s Novel The Power. EJELL [Internet]. 2024 Dec. 1;6(2):31-40. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA26DY82NP