Gender, Language and Ideology : A Genealogy of Japanese Women's Language

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. This book examines women's language as an ideological construction 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 Gender, Language and Ideology; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Table of contents; Acknowledgements ; List of figures and tables ; List of abbreviations in transcriptions ; Notes on Japanese names, the Romanization of Japanese language and translation of Japanese into English ; Introduction ; Japanese women's language ; Women's language as the norm ; Women's language as knowledge ; Women's language as value ; Women's language in previous studies ; Historical-discourse approach ; Women's language as an ideological construct ; Discourse as data ; Historical perspective Organization of the book Part 1. Women's speech as the object of regulation ; Chapter 1. The norms of feminine speech ; Women's conduct books ; The Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1185-1573) ; The Edo period (1603-1868) ; Association with femininity ; Conclusion ; Chapter 2. Normalization of court-women's speech ; Court-women's speech ; From the symbol of upper class to the norm of women ; Speech of the upper class ; Men's use of court-women's speech ; Prohibition on men's use ; The normalization of court-women's speech ; Conclusion ; Part 2. Gender and national language Linguistic gender differences in the unification dispute The creation of a men's national language ; Conclusion ; Chapter 4. Modernization of the norms of feminine speech ; Reproduction of the premodern norms of feminine speech ; Logic of the modern conduct books ; Logic of the school moral textbooks ; Conclusion ; Chapter 5. Creating indexicality ; Changing attire of female students ; Construction of schoolgirl speech ; Gender-differentiation: Denial of schoolboy speech ; Selection: choosing "Teyo dawa speech" and western words ; Derogation: Frivolous students Women's language in the war period Women's language as Japanese imperial tradition ; Women's language as a symbol of Japanese superiority ; Female citizens as protectors of the national language ; Conclusion ; Chapter 8. Gendering of the national language under national mobilization ; Women's roles in national mobilization ; Gender in academic discourse ; Locating women's language at the margin of standard Japanese ; Gendering the national language ; Teaching gender differences in national language readers ; Conclusion ; Part 4. Essentializing women's language Sexualization: From "teyo dawa speech" to schoolgirl speech Dilemma of sexuality: Schoolgirl speech revised ; Conclusion ; Chapter 6. Masculinizing the national language ; Grammar textbooks and school readers as metalinguistic practices ; Gender and linguistic features of Japanese national language ; Excluding features by associating them with women ; Schoolboy features into the Japanese national language ; Conclusion ; Part 3. Women's language into national language ; Chapter 7. Women's language as imperial tradition ; Japanese language in the Asian colonies Chapter 9. Women's language as reflection of femininity