Words that Strike and Words that Comfort: Discursive Dynamics of Verbal Abuse in Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked Into Doors1

Abstract

Linguistic violence against women comes in many guises. Feminist linguists have shown that derogatory, demeaning speech and sexist language are used in patriarchal societies to allocate to women a place marked by muteness and degradation. Among other forms of domestic violence, verbal abuse is often neglected because it hurts psychologically and emotionally rather than physically and thus remains ‘invisible’. This paper unravels the discursive dynamics of verbal abuse in Roddy Doyle's novel The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by drawing upon sociolinguistic and literary analytical tools. A close investigation into the characters' verbal interactions, notably sexist language, slang, silencing, and dialogic frames, illuminates the subtle ways in which verbal abuse ties in with power games, social positioning and the construction of personal identities. Verbal abuse not only puts the novel's protagonist ‘into place’ but ironically it also empowers her to the extent that the adoption of abusive language offers a means of self-defence and retaliation. The novel thus demonstrates the inescapability of the vicious circle that verbal abuse engenders and perpetuates. Thus, the novel not only raises awareness about the complexities of verbal abuse but also contributes to and potentially helps modify contemporary discourses on the problem.