Gender and language research methodologies

Abstract

Gender and Language Research Methodologies draws together for the first time the main current methodological approaches to the study of language and gender. These include Sociolinguistics, Conversation analysis, Corpus linguistics, Critical discourse analysis, Discursive psychology, Feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis and Queer theory. Each ‘approach’ is introduced by one of its key proponents in the field (including Ruth Wodak on CDA, Celia Kitzinger on Conversation Analysis and Judith Baxter on Feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis), and this is followed by chapters illustrating use of the approach. Readers (including postgraduate researchers) are thus able to consider which approach may be relevant to a given research project. They are also encouraged to consider the important question of the combination of approaches: which approaches are (and are not) compatible. In sum, this book explicitly addresses and constructively problematises what in many monographs and edited collections is left implicit and unquestioned.