Gender, language and ideology : a genealogy of Japanese women's language / Momoko Nakamura, Kanto Gakuin University.

"The Japanese version of this book, Onna kotoba wa tsukurareru [Constructing Women's Language], came out in 2007 and received the 27th Yamakawa Kikue Award, which recognizes outstanding research in women's studies, and I was invited to speak about Japanese women's language by universities, women's organizations, teachers' unions and government agencies all over Japan."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231-249) and index.

Introduction -- Women's speech as the object of regulation : the premodern period. The norms of feminine speech ; Normalization of court-women's speech -- Gender and national language : nation-state building in the early modern period. Construction of a national language for men ; Modernization of the norms of feminine speech ; Creating indexicality : schoolgirl speech ; Masculinizing the national language -- Women's language into national language : the impact of war. Women's language as imperial tradition : legitimating colonization ; Gendering of the national language under national mobilization -- Essentializing women's language : the postwar U.S. occupation. Women's language as reflection of femininity ; A gendered Japanese national language : symbol of patriarchy -- Conclusion : going beyond the gendered linguistic ideologies.

The book examines women’s language as an ideological construct historically created by discourse. The aim is to demonstrate, by delineating a genealogy of Japanese women’s language, that, to deconstruct and denaturalize the relationships between gender and any language, and to account for why and how they are related as they are, we must consider history, discourse and ideology. The book analyzes multiple discourse examples spanning the premodern period of the thirteenth century to the immediate post-WWII years, mostly translated into English for the first time, locating them in political, social and academic developments and describing each historical period in a manner easily accessible for those readers not familiar with Japanese history. This is the first book that describes a comprehensive development of Japanese women’s language and will greatly interest students of Japanese language, gender and language studies, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and history, as well as women’s studies and sexuality studies.

Description based on print version record.

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