Sexual identity labels in young adult novels featuring female same-sex attraction

Linguistics and English Language

Electronic data

2019windphd
Final published version, 3.76 MB, PDF document
Embargo ends: 1/12/24
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND
2019windphdinternal
Final published version, 3.91 MB, PDF document
Available under license: None

Text available via DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17635/lancaster/thesis/793
Final published version

Keywords

sexuality, construction grammar, Cognitive Semantics, Corpus- Assisted Discourse Studies, queer linguistics, fiction, narratives, Anglophone, Identity (re)construction, Labels, Categories

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Research output: Thesis › Doctoral Thesis

Unpublished

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Sexual identity labels in young adult novels featuring female same-sex attraction. / Wind, Kate.
Lancaster University, 2019. 563 p.

Research output: Thesis › Doctoral Thesis

Bibtex

@phdthesis{1340cc9f8799425fb8d705378bca902b,

title = "Sexual identity labels in young adult novels featuring female same-sex attraction",

abstract = "In this thesis I investigate the usage and meanings of sexual identity labels in a corpus of contemporary fictional first-person narratives featuring female same-sex attraction written for teenagers. I focus on how the relationships between female characters and sexual identity labels are portrayed in these Young Adult novels. I developed my analytical approach from cognitive and corpus linguistics as well as Queer Discourse Studies. Based on the manual annotation of concordance lines and the clustering of the occurrences of the labels, I provide an overview of their usage patterns and a detailed account of their functioning in selected text passages.My results indicate that, in these texts, acceptance of same-sex sexuality is discursively linked to gay and/or lesbian sexual identity. A prominent means in the construction of this link is the use of syntactically subordinated identity assignments to reflect upon implications of sexual identity. Furthermore, the texts in the corpus tend to discursively erase or suppress conceptualizations of a person{\textquoteright}s sexual orientation as non-exclusive to one sex. Conversely, same-sex sexual activity, a relationship, and/or attraction is the crucial property in identification with a label denoting same-sex sexual identity; this applies especially to private self-identification. Overall, the portrayal of the characters exhibits internalization of social categorization including specifically female same-sex labelling.A major contribution of the thesis is the development of a methodology for Discourse Analysis of fictional narratives which can elucidate the usage patterns of sexual identity labels. Hence, my approach has enabled tracing the indications for cognitive, semantic, and social structures manifest in the corpus investigated. In particular it has elucidated the normalized as well as the marginalized identities discursively constructed in a corpus of Anglophone realist Young Adult fiction about sexuality.",

keywords = "sexuality, construction grammar, Cognitive Semantics, Corpus- Assisted Discourse Studies, queer linguistics, fiction, narratives, Anglophone, Identity (re)construction, Labels, Categories",

author = "Kate Wind",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.17635/lancaster/thesis/793",

language = "English",

publisher = "Lancaster University",

school = "Lancaster University",

}

RIS

TY - BOOK

T1 - Sexual identity labels in young adult novels featuring female same-sex attraction

AU - Wind, Kate

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - In this thesis I investigate the usage and meanings of sexual identity labels in a corpus of contemporary fictional first-person narratives featuring female same-sex attraction written for teenagers. I focus on how the relationships between female characters and sexual identity labels are portrayed in these Young Adult novels. I developed my analytical approach from cognitive and corpus linguistics as well as Queer Discourse Studies. Based on the manual annotation of concordance lines and the clustering of the occurrences of the labels, I provide an overview of their usage patterns and a detailed account of their functioning in selected text passages.My results indicate that, in these texts, acceptance of same-sex sexuality is discursively linked to gay and/or lesbian sexual identity. A prominent means in the construction of this link is the use of syntactically subordinated identity assignments to reflect upon implications of sexual identity. Furthermore, the texts in the corpus tend to discursively erase or suppress conceptualizations of a person’s sexual orientation as non-exclusive to one sex. Conversely, same-sex sexual activity, a relationship, and/or attraction is the crucial property in identification with a label denoting same-sex sexual identity; this applies especially to private self-identification. Overall, the portrayal of the characters exhibits internalization of social categorization including specifically female same-sex labelling.A major contribution of the thesis is the development of a methodology for Discourse Analysis of fictional narratives which can elucidate the usage patterns of sexual identity labels. Hence, my approach has enabled tracing the indications for cognitive, semantic, and social structures manifest in the corpus investigated. In particular it has elucidated the normalized as well as the marginalized identities discursively constructed in a corpus of Anglophone realist Young Adult fiction about sexuality.

AB - In this thesis I investigate the usage and meanings of sexual identity labels in a corpus of contemporary fictional first-person narratives featuring female same-sex attraction written for teenagers. I focus on how the relationships between female characters and sexual identity labels are portrayed in these Young Adult novels. I developed my analytical approach from cognitive and corpus linguistics as well as Queer Discourse Studies. Based on the manual annotation of concordance lines and the clustering of the occurrences of the labels, I provide an overview of their usage patterns and a detailed account of their functioning in selected text passages.My results indicate that, in these texts, acceptance of same-sex sexuality is discursively linked to gay and/or lesbian sexual identity. A prominent means in the construction of this link is the use of syntactically subordinated identity assignments to reflect upon implications of sexual identity. Furthermore, the texts in the corpus tend to discursively erase or suppress conceptualizations of a person’s sexual orientation as non-exclusive to one sex. Conversely, same-sex sexual activity, a relationship, and/or attraction is the crucial property in identification with a label denoting same-sex sexual identity; this applies especially to private self-identification. Overall, the portrayal of the characters exhibits internalization of social categorization including specifically female same-sex labelling.A major contribution of the thesis is the development of a methodology for Discourse Analysis of fictional narratives which can elucidate the usage patterns of sexual identity labels. Hence, my approach has enabled tracing the indications for cognitive, semantic, and social structures manifest in the corpus investigated. In particular it has elucidated the normalized as well as the marginalized identities discursively constructed in a corpus of Anglophone realist Young Adult fiction about sexuality.

KW - sexuality

KW - construction grammar

KW - Cognitive Semantics

KW - Corpus- Assisted Discourse Studies

KW - queer linguistics

KW - fiction

KW - narratives

KW - Anglophone

KW - Identity (re)construction

KW - Labels

KW - Categories

U2 - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/793

DO - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/793

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - Lancaster University

ER -

Research

Electronic data

Text available via DOI:

Keywords