Feminism and Linguistic Theory

by Deborah Cameron

Feminism, as a movement for social change, has always recognized the significance of language in both theory and practice. In the new feminist scholarship of the past two decades, theories about language have played an important part in attempts to understand and transform women's lives. Feminism and Linguistic Theory is a critical but comprehensive and accessbile introduction to recent work in this area. It ranges over a wide and varied field; not only does it review work in linguistics and other mainstream disciplines, but the alternative currents of radical feminist, Lacanian and postmodernist linguistic thought are given detailed consideration.

Genres: Feminism, Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, Research, Politics, Gender

195 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Deborah Cameron, is a feminist linguist, who holds the Rupert Murdoch Professorship in Language and Communication at Worcester College, Oxford University. She is mainly interested in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. A large part of her academic research is focused on the relationship of language to gender and sexuality.Cameron wrote the book The Myth of Mars And Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages?, published in 2007

Reviews

[Nóra Máthé · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whiny and in many cases sloppy when it comes to referencing actual studies and issues. It has barely anything to do with linguistics, it's a self indulgent book of thoughts about feminism and language which has been covered multiple times much more thoroughly than in this book. It is easy to read, but it does not say much. Most of the points Cameron addresses are just literal whining about some basic realities such as academic language not being easily digestible for anyone. I find most of her problems to be non-issues. Also, it is very dated too, in 2017 you can definitely feel that this was written in the 80s.

[Michelle Renyé]

I have underlined this book like a maniac. At times I have not agreed on some idea, but times have produced such social change that I am sure Cameron might agree with me now. I do recommend it whenever I have the chance! I love this book!

[niina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had extremely hard time trying to get interested in this, getting through the process took some serious psyching every other fifteen minutes. Cameron covers some great and interesting and important areas of gender studies here, but it turned out I'm not too into her style of writing and teaching, even though the conversational sensations surely make this softer and less preachy and boring than it could be. One read-through wasn't enough for me to get the most important and up-to-date insights out of this, luckily I make notes so I didn't have to read it again completely, I'm not sure I could have endured that.

[Farah Akram · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can i read it? Its not opening.