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Baby entertainer, bumbling assistant and line manager: discourses of fatherhood in parentcraft texts.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>04/2000
<mark>Journal</mark>Discourse and Society
Issue number2
Volume11
Number of pages26
Pages (from-to)249-274
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this paper I report on an investigation of discoursal asymmetry in parentcraft texts, in terms of the ways in which the father is represented and backgrounded. In particular, I suggest that it is possible to see one dominant, overarching discourse: `Part-time father/mother as main parent'. This dominant discourse can be seen as being `shored up' (as well as, to an extent, challenged) by other, usually complementary, discourses: `father as baby entertainer', `father as mother's bumbling assistant', `father as line manager', `mother as manager of the father's role in childcare', and `mother as wife/partner'. These discourses are characterized by recurring and non-recurring linguistic presences - and, importantly, absences (Van Leeuwen, 1995, 1996). Looking in particular at the following linguistic items from three different semantic fields - mother/father/wife/husband/partner; play/fun/help; and share - I illustrate how different discourses, with their salient linguistic presences and absences, can organize a text in supporting and potentially destabilizing ways.