THE FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF LANGUAGE: GENDER DECONSTRUCTION AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

Odnos roda, jezika i društvenog identiteta opširno je područje sociolingvistike a ovaj rad usredotočio se na najvažnija preklapanja tih fenomena. U uvodnom dijelu ukratko definiramo rod i rodni identitet u društvu. Drugo je poglavlje svojevrstan uvod u feminističku kritiku jezika i upoznavanje s njezinim najvažnijim pravcima, od kojih svaki donosi nov pogled na ženski stil pisanja ili pak govorenja. Treće je poglavlje kratak pregled dosadašnjih lingvističkih dostignuća u istraživanjima o rodu. Upoznajemo najvažnije pravce i teorije koje su se bavile problemom roda u jeziku, kao što je teorija društvenog identiteta. U ovom se poglavlju susrećemo i sa socijalnom psihologijom, čija su otkrića o rodu također bitna za sociolingvistiku, uglavnom se osvrćući na rad Judith Butler koja među prvima briše binarnost roda. Posljednji je odlomak u ovom poglavlju kratak pregled emipirijskih studija o rodu koje dokazuju kako ljudsko ponašanje mnogo više ovisi o kontekstu nego o rodnoj pripadnosti. Rad završava razradom osnovne teme, a to je dekonstrukcija roda i konstrukcija identiteta. Osnovna misao koja se proteže u tom poglavlju jest da je rod performans, odnosno da se rod iskazuje uvijek iznova, u svakoj situaciji i da su dosad za to postojala pravila, a odsad se poziva na promjenu u društvu koja će dopustiti konstrukciju individualnog identiteta neovisno o rodnoj pripadnosti.The relationship between gender, language and social identity is an extensive sociolinguistic field, and this work focuses on the most important overlaps of these phenomena. In the introductory part, we define gender and gender identity in society in general. The second chapter is a sort of an introduction to the feminist critique of the language and presents its most important approaches, each of which gives a new view on the female style of writing or speaking. The third chapter is a short overview of the existing linguistic achievements when it comes to gender studies. We present the most important approaches and theories that dealt with the issue of gender in language, such as the social identity theory. In this chapter, we also include social psychology, which was essential in the area of gender in sociolinguistics, by studying the work of Judith Butler who was one of the first to overturn gender binarity. The last paragraph in this chapter is a short overview of empirical studies on gender, which prove that human behaviour is much more dependent on the context than on gender itself. We conclude with an analysis of the basic topic of this work – the deconstruction of gender and the construction of identity. The central idea in this chapter is the notion that gender is a performance, i.e. that it is constantly performed anew, in each given situation and that, up until now, there were rules for that in place. But now a change in society will enable the construction of individual identity regardless of gender issue