Authors perceptions of authors gender:A myth or a truth?

Abstract

Gender plays a crucial role in the lives of human beings. From the moment of birth, the two genders are taught to follow different codes of behaviour that are compatible with the societal roles stipulated for each gender. Many linguists and sociolinguistics believe that because male and female have different life experiences, the way the two genders speak and write will differ. The question of identifying such differences has exercised linguistic researchers for decades. The studies of difference in the language used by males and females have mainly focused on phonological and lexical differences in their spoken medium and informal writing such as student essays, personal letters and electronic messaging. The language used in novels, plays and poetry seems to be an area which so far has not been thoroughly elucidated. This paper explores and examines the general beliefs whether professional authors, particularly literary writers, could perceive and identify any linguistic differences in Arab male and female novelists' style of writing. Ten Arabic-speaking Jordanian writers, five males and five females, are asked to express their opinions with regard to such difference. The results are in conformity with the findings of international gender studies, thus providing further support to the claim that the difference between male and female styles of writing is more of a truth than a myth. Key words: Gender, author, language, perception, literary writers.