Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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Transcript of Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/language-and-womens-place-2011 1/14
Language and Women’s Place
in Duffy’s Poemsz
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/language-and-womens-place-2011 2/14
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In what sense are we defined by
Language?
“The limit of my language is the limit of myworld” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
Language constructs and limits our world view
We understand our environment along lines laiddown by our native language
Innuit words for snow
Tlapa - powder snow
tlacringit - snow that is crusted on the surface kayi - drifting snow
tlapat - still snow
klin- remembered snow
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/language-and-womens-place-2011 3/14
Innuit words for snow
Tlapa - powder snow
tlacringit - snow that is crusted on the
surface kayi - drifting snow
tlapat - still snow
klin- remembered snow
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/language-and-womens-place-2011 4/14
How does Language fix a woman’s
position?
If language and linguistic categories have the power to limitour world view, what happens with a sexist language?
“What implications are there when language perpetuates the
view that the world is male unless proven otherwise?” – DaleSpencer
Assumptions are made about the nature and role of womenfrom the use of language
“when linguistic space is monopolised by men, when termsare marked female, they are also marked negative” – MurielSchulz
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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How are women discriminated through
language?
Robin Lakoff a linguist says women are
discriminated in two ways
How women are taught to use language
How language is used to talk about women
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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How to talk like a ‘lady’
Wide range of colour terms
Low on swear terms
High on meaningless particulars like ‘oh dear’
High on emotive words like ‘divine’, ‘adorable’
High on tag questions indicating lack of
assertiveness and confidence
And while these are imposed, they are also ridiculedso a girl is damned if she does, damned if she
doesn’t.
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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How are women spoken of?
Use of euphemisms
“what a euphemism is supposed to do is toremove from thought that part of the
connotations of a word that creates discomfort”eg: domestic help, restroom, homemaker…
Linguistic imbalance
Master vs. Mistress
Dog vs. Bitch Bachelor vs. Spinster
Pronouns for generic “he”, “man”
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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So what seems to be the solution?
“For women to become visible, it is
necessary that they become linguistically
visible”
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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How does Duffy do this in her poems?
She explores the way in which women’s reality and meaningare constructed through language by playing with words.
Examine ‘Valentine’
investigates the way in which meaning is constructed through
language, as the speaker tries to move beyond clichés and find amore authentic way of expressing feeling and experience
'Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
*…+ I am trying to be truthful.'
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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Constant struggle with language As not being sufficient to express deep emotion and aspects of women’s
experience
Desire - Ellipsis Warming her Pearls,
Uses euphemisms in certain poems to deal with that which is toofrightening ( Girl Talking) “She made blood”, “we guard our hearts”
But also uses it to shock
in Standing Female Nude … “ Belly Nipple Arse” language used in anunfeminine way goes with the agenda of the poem which is that shecannot be represented and will not be appropriated or reduced tomale gaze. In the same way her use of language will not be dictated bywhat is deemed ‘ladylike’ So challenges language as attempting toappropraite BUT ALSO
Acknowledges Language as defining
Whoever She Was “my maiden name sounds wrong” – language ashaving the power to change identity and the way a woman viewsherself
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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Plays with language to try to create new
meaning
The Way My Mother Speaks “nothing is silent, nothing isnot silent” and “I am happy and sad”, “ I am homesick,free, in love’
Consider the simultaneous existence of seemingly
contradictory emotions This seems to be the same for women’s experiences
of love, longing, desire and loss. In I Remember Me – “wordless barefaced truths”
Suggests That because language is insufficiently
catered to women , it can also dilute what is thetruth if we try to represent women’s experiencesthrough this limited means
and yet as a poet that is her tool! Hence, A constanttension
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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Tension in Language
Correspondents
“We have the language of stuffed birds, teacups, we don’t
have the language of bodies” – the lack of words or
physical language as limiting or crippling. But “I read your dark words and do to myself things you
can only imagine’ “ I have called your name over and over
in my head at the point your fiction brings me to” - that
language/fiction in the sense of the letter/fantasy/words
have power to release desire as well. Reflective of the tension of patriarchy, not just on
women but individuals
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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Language and experience
In River, she questions how who we are is defined by languagebut also how language is dependent on who we are.
It is defining because “she feels she is somewhere elsebecause of words”
But also if “if you were really there, what would you write”.How would you represent it through language?
Language as unable to capture experience entirely because“what would you write on a postcard, or on the sand,(washedaway) near where the river runs into the sea” – it will againchange. But also nature remains what it is, it is only how we
perceive it that changes when language changes. While language can define/limit us…it can also give us a sense
of place and identity. While it cannot express everything, it isalso our only tool with which to translate experience
8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011
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In conclusion
Duffy sees language as both inadequate in
encapsulating women’s experience but also
as necessary
As defining and therefore limiting but also as
empowering because it gives a sense of place
and belonging
Her poems are constantly exploring thesetensions