A
Feminist Stylistics Study of a Namibian Short Story in English
By: Uerimanga Tjijombo
Abstract
This
assignment delivers a feminist stylistic analysis short story in Namibia:
Lana’s story by Berchen Kohrs. The aim is to find how Bertchen Kohrs how the
language is used to present women and to know the key purpose of the short
story. This short story represented
women being treated by men based on their status as well as their level their
qualifications. This short story includes how women are being abused by men. A study has shown that women characters are
lower than men Nyathi and Malapong, (2002). According to Nyathi, (2012), women
are the victim of men being abused by men by beaten by men in their marriage.
Most women characters depend on their fathers, (Malopong, 2002). He describes
women as attractive goodness because they can be only valued according to how
they look, therefore they are quality is decreased by their sprits appearance.
In addition, both writers used linguistic devices such as metaphors and figures
to bring awareness to gender roles that are expected of women like working in
the garden to provide food for their families and working as domestic workers
as a sexual pleasure to their husbands. The study presented women as voiceless
and powerless in many facts. The study for both Nyathi (2012) and Malapong
(2002) describes women as undesirably, and the feminist stylistic was framework
was successful in bringing these presentations to light.
Keywords:
drama, feminism, stylistics, gender, representation, feminist stylistics
Background
The
importance of language is not for communication only but it has a lot to do
with culture, gender, and politics to view reality (Ufot, 2012). One of the
interesting things in Namibia literature is drama. There is a lot that
describes Namibia that is including social issues such as gender by not people
treated equally in Namibia life in general (Mbise & Vale, 1998). Women in
Namibia still are not treated equally compared to men in Namibia. In Namibia,
there are a lot of stereotypes that make women treated like men, most people in
Namibia believe in tradition, customary law, and cultural practices that make
more men discriminate against women in many conditions (Ruppel, 2008). The
writer has found it interesting in analysing how the language used in Namibian
plays dealing with gender issues more specifically represents women’s feminist
stylistics approach. Feminist stylistics challenged roles as wives or mothers
before feminism. It is a sensibility that is deeply rooted in a popular
consciousness and mass awareness of the nature of human and social existence
(mill, 1995).
Problem statement
It
is factual that most gender is manipulated and defined by their sexes. That the
problem that exists now has known is the high expectation of traditional roles
of women are still exist reminded of their traditional values and gender
position which is in their language of literature. Women are treated as
marginalized people. Demotion and subordinating
of women in traditional societies have been a concern for those who believe in
the quality of gender. This given confrontation of feminism has often been used
as a way by feminist writers for their women by believing in themselves.
However, this strategy has given good results to women in Africa. With fewer
issues raised above, there is a need to readdress a feminist stylistic approach
that is devoid of confrontational and radical tendencies. Maybe feminism which
embraces a symbiotic relationship among the sexes may yield greater and more
effective results for the women since language and style are the major weapons
in the dissemination of the feminist message (Ufot, 2012).
Objectives of the short story
The
main aim of this study is to analyse how short stories in linguistics
perceptive can be used to explain the short story.
These
short story-specific objectives are:
·
to carry out a short story linguistic
analysis of the spoken language in the short story in feminist perceptive.
·
to examine how short stories, comprehend
the feminist language in relation to their cultural background and their goals
of interaction in the cultural perceptive.
·
to identify the specific linguistic-based
challenges such as feminist lexical phrases faced by lay females in the short
story process with a view to describing them.
·
to offer suggestions on how feminist
linguistics can be used to avoid language to misinterpreted during communication.
A review of Namibian short stories in
English
The
researcher used a feminist stylistics approach to do an analysis at the level
of word, phrase, and discourse in order to examine Lana story feminist concerns
in her three stories that deconstruct traditional patriarchal fairy tales. The
findings revealed that Lana’s story established ideologies and stereotyping of
gender roles with a feminist interest. As a result, she not only deconstructs
the sexist connotations of earlier fairy tales but also presents new stories to
weaken female oppression through language by understanding the power of
language in producing and reinforcing sexism.
Lana’s
story researcher discovered that Bertchen Kohrs constructs the image of Lana as
an individual who is struggling with the teachings of Namibia tradition through
a feminist stylistic analysis of the image of female Lana in short stories. The
female characters' parents, particularly the father, shape the image of the
African, demonstrating that they are fulfilling their role as African trust.'
Men are superior to women in African culture. findings of the short story
"Lana story," in which the analysis revealed that language serves as
a vehicle for the transmission of social, cultural, economic, and psychological
forces or meanings in the representation of women at various stages, such as at
home or at work, where women are portrayed as subordinates.
The
patriarchal ideology in the presentation of women is inherent in the writer's
thought structures, which are presented at the lexical, syntactical, and
discourse levels of the short story. The short story writer has not only
presented the social and economic roles and status of women characters as
compared to male characters, but also the patriarchal ideology in the
presentation of women, which is inherent in the writer's thought structures, which
are presented at the lexical, syntactical, and discourse levels of the short
story. They went on to say that this is a regular occurrence in women's
representations in general and that this scenario should be changed. It does
not, however, explain the power that these types of representations have for
female listeners or the reasons why women, in particular, are the focus of this
type of representational practice, nor does it recognize the other messages in
the text that undermine the female character's dominant passive role. Looked at
gender representation in advertising language through the lens of feminist
stylistics, looking at the word and clausal naming devices, stylistic features,
and rhetorical devices to see how advertisers and copywriters use language to
portray women.
Their
male colleagues, on the other hand, have a great deal of autonomy in the same
case Lana did not say anything about her husband’s behaviours due to cultural
practices she decide to keep quiet. She told her friend was about to further
her study and take care of her children since she believe that the future will
bright for her but unfortunately, her life end in halfway, and she was killed
by her husband under the influence of alcohol. Her friend was shocked when she
had about her death she did not advise anything. Every woman has the right to
the recognition and preservation of her human and legal rights, according to
the agreement. It contains articles on marriage equality, access to justice and
political participation, women's safety in armed conflict, and education,
training, and health care. Due to the culture of Africa people turn to ignore
even those who are mistreated do not take it seriously till something bad
happens to them and people in the surroundings do not speak about all these bad
things. In the review of this short story, the researcher has realized that
women's marginalization and invisibility in African policy-making is still a
hot topic in the worldwide debate. Restrictive laws, cultural diversities, and
customs, institutional hurdles, and uneven access to quality education,
healthcare, and resources are all likely causes for concern. Men use language
to subordinate women, according to the more extreme interpretations, while
women respond by tiptoeing around men in their language use. This exposes the
presence of sexism in language, which can be detected in a variety of ways,
including the use of stereotypes, generic terms, derogatory or offensive words,
and expressions that imply objectification (Baker & Ellece, 2011, p. 129).
Namibia's
society was extremely patriarchal and racially divided until it attained
independence. The patriarchal system is based on paterfamilias, which means
that the man is the household's head. As a result, his wife would be his
'property,' and she would be his slave. However, there has been a paradigm
shift in human rights conceptions since the adoption of the Namibian
Constitution in 1990. The Namibian Constitution sets a strong foundation for
gender equality because it is one of the few constitutions in the world that
employs gender-neutral language throughout and expressly prohibits
discrimination based on gender (Ambunda & DeKlerk, 2008). In Namibia, women
continue to confront obstacles in achieving equality with their male counterparts.
Due to conventional beliefs and gender stereotyping, women continue to face
uneven treatment in many areas of life, particularly under customary law.
Patriarchy and men's discriminatory attitudes are frequently justified by
citing tradition, customary law, and specific cultural customs (Ruppel, 2008).
Women
expect to specialize more in the reproductive role, therefore there are fewer
incentives for them to acquire human capital through education. As a result,
many women do not complete their education and instead marry younger due to
cultural expectations from their families. Many African women, in particular,
are trained to be good spouses and mothers, and as a result of these cultural
expectations, they readily accept the reproductive role and obligations. Men
assume that women's place is in the home and men's place is outside the home,
which limits women's participation outside the home and men's participation
inside the home (Husselmann, 2016). As a result, the writers are influenced by
the existing sociological condition of women in Namibia. According to Adedoja
(2010), the social significance of literature cannot be disputed because
literature cannot be isolated from social ideals (p. 34). It's mostly about
social ideals and how they're projected by different writers in different
generations. This argument includes Namibian literature, which includes the
plays under consideration.
To
begin with, women in Namibian literature are portrayed in a bad light. Sifiso
Nyathi, a Namibian novelist, for example, writes about Kachana, a woman
character with questionable morality, in his work The Other Presence (2008).
Kachana is notorious for drinking excessively and associating with guys, as
opposed to her female counterparts who only associate with women. The author
did not represent the guys who keep Kachana Company as similarly wicked or
unfit, despite the fact that they were also intended to bear the brunt of the
guilt for being in each other's company.
Finally,
Woldemariam’s (2018)'s study "Improving sociolinguistic competence through
feminist stylistics" confirms that gender discrimination through language
exists, as one of its major findings was that women figures in the two poems
studied are given inferior positions, and men are visionary and resourceful,
while women are emotional.
A review of research articles
focusing specifically on feminist stylistics
Feminism,
according to Ray (2013, p. 4), is a conscious awareness of patriarchal control,
exploitation, and oppression at the material and ideological levels of women's
labour, fertility, and sexuality, in the family, at work, and in society as a
whole, as well as conscious action by women and men to change the current
situation. Gibbons (1999) defines feminism as a practice and a philosophy that
challenges social arrangements on the relative value, status, positions,
duties, and opportunities of men and women. Women are oppressed, according to
feminists, and are treated differently. Women face not only personal but also
institutional prejudice in a patriarchal system that benefits men. Feminist
linguists argue that language can be used to generate and reflect gender
inequality. Language, according to Mills (1995), is a social behaviour and a
method of social control. As a result, according to Holmes (1997), linguistic
behaviour reflects complicated social meanings.
We
exert or relinquish power over language by indicating the various social groups
with which we identify, the social roles we embrace, and the frequently
contradictory ideals we promote. (p.195) Feminist criticism is a theory that
originated in the United States and France and has extended into feminist
stylistics. Feminist criticism derives its theoretical foundations from the
greater feminist movement, which argues for gender equality in social, political,
and economic matters. However, the feminist movement's dialectical
inconsistencies and tensions have made it impossible to define it precisely.
Language, as a means of communication, is permeated with male bias, according
to feminist criticism. Sexist beliefs can be communicated through descriptions
of girls and guys, even when no generic masculine rhetoric is used or when
remarks are openly derogatory. In newspaper reporting about women's atrocities,
there is an intentional marginalization of women (Holmes, 1997).
According
to Verma (2016), sexism in language is one of the most constitutive components
of feminist stylistics, and it deals with the use of language in defining the
function and place of a specific gender in social interaction. Sexist language,
according to Mills (1995), is the language that is used by a speaker, whether
consciously or unconsciously, to alienate females and create an environment
that is not conducive to communication and effective social relationships. As a
result, feminist stylistics or feminism analysis is primarily concerned with
language, as language is the primary medium of meaning that serves to maintain
dominant relationships. Thus, studying.
Stylistics, according to Verdnok (2013, p.12), is an interdisciplinary phenomenon
that studies the relationship between literary results and language means. The
multidisciplinary nature of the work demonstrates that current stylistics has
expanded beyond classical rhetoric to encompass cognitive, pragmatic, corpus,
pedagogical, multimodal, gender, and other methods (Burke, 2014). Simpson
(2004) goes on to say that feminist and cognitive stylistics are two
established schools of stylistics that have contributed to the enrichment of
stylistic methodologies. Feminism in a literary text entails examining the ways
in which meaning contributes to the perpetuation of dominant relationships. To
put it another way, language is not only a means of communication or even
information, but it is also a tool of power (Darweesh & Ghayadh, 2016).
Stylistics is a method of applied language research that makes discoveries
about the structure and function of language through textual analysis (Simpson,
1997, p. 4). Stylistics originated in the 1960s, influenced by formalism,
literary criticism, and linguistics, according to Stockwell (2006). Due to the
requirement to account for aberrant forms in the study of poetry and prose,
stylistics gained significant traction in the 1970s. Stylistics was focused on
the linguistic study of literature, whereas non-literary studies were referred
to as 'critical linguistics,' 'critical discourse analysis,' 'text
linguistics,' and so on. Although Burke (2014, p. 1) points out that stylistics
can be used in the study of non-literary texts, stylistics is referred to as literary
stylistics.
According
to Short and Semino (2008, p.117), stylistic analysis is a type of linguistic
criticism that aims to provide objective and scientific critique based on
concrete quantifiable data and applied in a systematic manner rather than
subjective emotions and wants. To put it another way, we can figure out how we
interpret a text by looking at the linguistic organization of the text and how
a reader, informed model, or super reader interacts with that linguistic
organization to produce meaning. As a result, it is possible to conclude that
every style analysis is an attempt to discover the aesthetic principles
underlying a writer's linguistic choices of language. As a result, according to
Holmes (1997), language behaviour reflects complicated social meanings. We
establish or relinquish power over language by indicating the various social
groups with which we identify, the social roles we embrace, and the frequently
contradictory values we espouse.
Feminist
stylistics emerged as a branch of stylistics in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
when the trend of contextualization was proving to be advantageous in literary
stylistic studies. It shares concepts and language models with critical
stylistics because feminist analysis of texts is one of the most powerful and
politically necessary expressions of the analysis of literature as a product of
social relations (Birch, 1989). Burton (1982) is also a significant person in
the feminist stylistics field.
The
feminist approach to stylistics is now most closely connected with Sara Mills'
and Deirdre Burton's recent works, as well as Virginia Woolf's critical
intervention and French feminists like Jacques Lacan, Helene Cixous, and Luce
Irigaray. It claims that men have a predominance over how women are treated in
society and how they are portrayed in literature. As a result, it uses its
words to create an honest counter-image of women. The goal of this stylistic
approach is to investigate how literature represents (or does not express) a
distinct female consciousness. In the process, literary art is primarily viewed
as a vehicle for highlighting female perspectives and dismantling male
prejudices about women.
Feminist
statisticians want to bring women into the spotlight (Ufot, 2012). Feminist
stylistics, according to Blaine (1990, p. 3), is the strongest successor to
critical stylistics, focusing on unmasking patriarchal ideas and denaturalizing
patriarchal assumptions. As a result, the purpose of this stylistic method is
to investigate the evolution of language and social change. This is
accomplished by attempting to dismantle language's figurative and expressive
potential, which favours women's subordination, dehumanization, and enslavement
in society. As a result, feminist stylistics focuses on the interpretation of
texts from a feminist perspective. It recognizes that there are linguistic
correlates to society's subjugation of women to men, and it sets out to not
only uncover but also abolish these correlations. The self-conscious
initiatives by female writers to modify established patterns of language use
are highlighted in a methodical manner by feminist stylisticians. They do so by
detecting the dialectical aspects of such writings, as well as alternative ways
of expression. The feminist ethos serves as the grounding idea for this
approach to stylistics, which covers a wide range of topics and skills in
textual analysis.
Major Findings (Analysis and
Interpretation of extracts from the Namibian short story selected
After
reading Lana’s story, one can see that women in Namibia continue to face
challenges by being treated the same compared to men. In many ways of life as
Lana explained to a friend she was very good and she expected to have a
wonderful relationship with his husband Paul, who was a well-qualified engineer
and working for a good company that gave him accommodation in the company
house. To look at things under customary law, women are still subject to
unequal treatment due to traditional beliefs and gender for not being in the
same position. Lana was explained as the
smartest woman than her husband but she did not have qualifications due to the
African belief that women must not be equal to their men. Lana has accepted
life as good life since she admitted African cultural practices which are
frequently cited to justify patriarchy and men’s discriminatory attitudes.
Many
women in Africa, special those who are expected to be good wives and mothers,
that what was applied to Lana she thought she has achieved as an African woman
because of this cultural expectation, she did not know that things will change
one day she did not both about to further her study until Paul her husband she
her attitudes to alcohol and being African man who assumes the reproductive
role and responsibilities without much protest. Men as well assume that women’s
place in the home and that men’s is outside the home, which limits the
participation of women outside the home and men in the home. Lana when she got
married she was pregnant with another man, but Paul used his manpower just like
other African men not to worry to stay with the child because she loved his
mother he did not mind taking the child his child.
It is true that in some instances, gender
differences are manipulated widely in defining sexes. The problem at hand is
that expectations and the traditional roles of women are instilled in the
language of literature such as plays to function as a reminder of women’s
gendered position. The choice of words validates and promotes patriarchal
thinking to perceive women as the marginalised gender. Because of survival and
lack of qualification Lana knows that his husband started sleeping around with
another woman but because of African behaviour and attitudes she decides to
accept to stay so that she can take care of her children, in the name of her
husband because she had a belief that she will be going to suffer if she
divorced the husband.
Her
friend did advise her since both of them seem to believe on the same page since
they were friends. Lana was married a very year at the age of 18, as a woman
African, she had to believe that she has settled. She went to visit a friend,
thinking that perhaps her friend will advise her differently but her friend did
not do anything. This encompasses, among other things, prejudice against
widows, discrimination against women with fertility troubles, discrimination
against unmarried women of specific ages, lack of inheritance for girl
children, female genital mutilation, and gender bias. In a normal African civilization,
women are supposed to be well-behaved, decent wives, and not interrupt their
elders.
Lana's
story would not sit well with three ladies from Opuwo's Great Kunene Region,
who have expressed their opinions based on how males treat them. Kat stated
that she wanted her husband to regard her as a friend. She does not want to
know much about her husband's personal life, but she does want him to value
her. According to her beliefs, males are not equal to men, but she desired to
be respected as a woman like any other woman. She wants to feel like she's a
part of her husband's life. According to the researcher's findings, most men
are selfish; they would want to be helped by their women, but they prefer not
to help their women, educational, economical, and emotional. She departs in the
manner of African life, but she wishes to depart in the manner of Africans, but
in a modern manner. The researcher believes that Namibian women, particularly
those from Opuwo, desire not to get away from their African culture but don't
want to lose out on the treats. Women deserve to be treated like other women;
it doesn't matter how you act as long as they don't know what you're doing.
Another
Opuwo woman, Zaku, stated that she does not expect much from her husband but
that she wants to gain from him, and that if she does not contribute anything
in the way of tangible things, she must show her love by paying more attention.
She stated that she does not need to access her husband's phone, but that her
spouse must not do things that cause her to wonder what he is doing with his
phone. She does not want her husband to hide his phone, particularly if he does
it by turning it upside down. The majority of women, according to the study,
want to be loved and respected as women, just like other women who have seen
their husbands treat them properly. However, these Opuwo women respect their
tradition, but what they seek from men is true love, which they do not receive
from their spouses or partners. The researcher discovered that women have been
mistreated by their men since most women, according to their culture, are
unable to speak up and express their feelings about how men should treat them.
Another
talkative lady, Lenzy, stated a few things, but she was quite precise because
she said, "I will be very glad if a man values me since I do not rely on
men." She also remarked, "A man cannot be a failed man, even to
provide attention to your women." She stated that if a man is unable to
support her, he should at least contact her every day or send her a text to say
good morning or good evening. Women from the Great Kunene region, specifically
from Opuwo, do not expect much from men and do not want to push them too hard.
All they seek is genuine love and respect.
Recommendations
A feminist stylistic analysis of one Namibian short story
was offered in the study. Despite the fact that the researcher considers his
own findings to be the sexist roots of his research, he believes that women
express some fundamental truths with amazing clarity. He makes a compelling
case that respect is a core, and an absolutely necessary, component of a good
marriage (albeit more so for males than females, in his opinion), and he uses a
number of compelling examples to demonstrate how a shift toward unconditional
respect can breathe new life into a relationship. If he emphasizes a universal
truth, it is one that is applicable to both men and women. His understanding of
the insane cycle, for example, is that a wife reacts without respect to her
husband's lack of love, and a husband reacts without love to his wife's lack of
respect.
Rather than this formulation, the researcher
proposes that when one spouse fails to satisfy the other's innermost needs for
both love and respect, the second partner will respond defensively and fail to
meet the first partner's deepest wants for both love and respect in return.
It may be simpler to give ideas by making broad
generalizations about huge groups of people, but a thoughtful approach
necessitates evaluating the unique character and traits of each individual and
each close relationship. Maybe men and women don't inhabit such disparate
worlds after all.
Conclusions
The primary goal of this analysis was to examine the
short story. The researcher might learn a
lot from women if they love their spouses as they expect to be loved because
they do what they anticipate from men. If given the choice, women would prefer
respect and love over feeling insulted and inadequate, according to the
researcher. He gathered this data from the perspective of a female and
discovered that a similar majority would prefer not to feel mistreated and
inadequate than appreciated and loved. Based on this knowledge, it was
determined that a woman need love in the same way that she requires air to
breathe, and a husband requires respect in the same way that he requires oxygen
to breathe.
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