Language and gender

de Sara Mills

This volume examines important themes in the current theoretical debates on the relationship of language and gender. It analyses this relationship across a range of different disciplinary perspectives from linguistics, literary theory, cultural studies and visual analysis. The focus of the book goes beyond an analysis of women's language to discuss the complexities of gendered language with chapters on lesbian poetics, the language of girls and boys and the relationship between gender and genre. In her introduction, Sara Mills discusses how language is analysed differently across a range of disciplines and she looks at the various meanings associated with the term gender. Two key chapters, by leading linguists in the area, Deborah Cameron and Jennifer Coates, focus the book on the current situation of the language and gender debate. Accessibly written, individual chapters are short, concise and clearly focused on an aspect of this debate. Language and Gender will be of interest to students and lecturers in a range of areas from Linguistics, Literature, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Education and Social Sciences, providing them with the opportunity to survey other perspectives on the subject.