Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People

by Shigeko Okamoto (Editor), Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (Editor)

Japanese Language, Gender and Ideology is a collection of previously unpublished articles by established as well as promising young scholars in Japanese language and gender studies.



The contributors to this edited volume argue that traditional views of language in Japan are cultural constructs created by policy makers and linguists, and that Japanese society in general, and language use in particular, are much more diverse and heterogeneous than previously understood. This volume brings together studies that substantially advance our understanding of the relationship between Japanese language and gender, with particular focus on examining local linguistic practices in relation to dominant ideologies. Topics studies include gender and politeness, the history of language policy, language and Japanese romance novels and fashion magazines, bar talk, dictionary definitions, and the use of first-person pronouns. The volume will substantially advance the agenda of this field, and will be of interest to sociolinguists, anthropologists, sociologists, and scholars of Japan and Japanese.

Genres: Academic, Japan, Linguistics, Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2004

Reviews

[Felipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth reading by any scholar or student in Japanese, linguistics, and/or gender.

Due to the book's age, the ethnographic episodes are now all quite dated, as is the romanization style (which I admit had me laughing at some points and wanting to scratch my eyes out at others). Language that some people may no longer find acceptable --again, a symptom of the volume's age--is also occasionally employed, but these issues do not affect the overall value of the volume as a resource.

[Rafael Munia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has a promising idea behind it: it understands that most of the literature on Japan is based more on a static model that has low semblance to every day life and mostly reflect a State reading and promotion of the idea of Japan.

That being said, the book doesn't really do much to replace this with any sort of improvement. Instead, what it does is to reify static cultural models from Japanese without realizing that those narratives also bear little resemblance to the everyday life that it tried to addressed.

Of course some authors succeed more than others, but judging the book in general, the feeling after reading it is that it didn't really achieve what it was going for.

Also, as usual with most Japanese Studies books, theory is lacking, which also makes it difficult to recommend a book attempting to push Japanese Studies towards something new while having no theory to back it up.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays on various aspects of Japanese language--it's primarily about "Japanese women's language," the Tokyo Standard dialect, but there are sections on men's language as well. This was definitely a book geared to people with a linguistics background, but it had some useful information all the same.

Probably the strangest part was that none of the romaji was in the Hepburn romanization style I'm used to, so that was kind of a hurdle to jump.

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a matter of fact I found this book a little bit boring in general, but there were little very interesting information.

In generale posso dire che questo mi è sembrato un libro noioso con alcune interessanti informazioni.

[Jianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very interesting and I want to read more but—alas!—cannot afford to at the moment.
Very informative as well, and very good research. Highly recommended from the chapter(s)? I read!