language and women’s place 2011

8/3/2019 Language and Women&Rsquo;s Place 2011

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/language-and-womens-place-2011 1/14

Language and Women’s Place

in Duffy’s Poemsz



y

In what sense are we defined by

Language?

“The limit of my language is the limit of myworld” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Language constructs and limits our world view

We understand our environment along lines laiddown by our native language

Innuit words for snow

Tlapa - powder snow

tlacringit - snow that is crusted on the surface kayi - drifting snow

tlapat - still snow

klin- remembered snow



Innuit words for snow

Tlapa - powder snow

tlacringit - snow that is crusted on the

surface kayi - drifting snow

tlapat - still snow

klin- remembered snow



How does Language fix a woman’s

position?

If language and linguistic categories have the power to limitour world view, what happens with a sexist language?

“What implications are there when language perpetuates the

view that the world is male unless proven otherwise?” – DaleSpencer

Assumptions are made about the nature and role of womenfrom the use of language

“when linguistic space is monopolised by men, when termsare marked female, they are also marked negative” – MurielSchulz



How are women discriminated through

language?

Robin Lakoff a linguist says women are

discriminated in two ways

How women are taught to use language

How language is used to talk about women



How to talk like a ‘lady’

Wide range of colour terms

Low on swear terms

High on meaningless particulars like ‘oh dear’

High on emotive words like ‘divine’, ‘adorable’

High on tag questions indicating lack of

assertiveness and confidence

And while these are imposed, they are also ridiculedso a girl is damned if she does, damned if she

doesn’t.



How are women spoken of?

Use of euphemisms

“what a euphemism is supposed to do is toremove from thought that part of the

connotations of a word that creates discomfort”eg: domestic help, restroom, homemaker…

Linguistic imbalance

Master vs. Mistress

Dog vs. Bitch Bachelor vs. Spinster

Pronouns for generic “he”, “man”



So what seems to be the solution?

“For women to become visible, it is

necessary that they become linguistically

visible”



How does Duffy do this in her poems?

She explores the way in which women’s reality and meaningare constructed through language by playing with words.

Examine ‘Valentine’

investigates the way in which meaning is constructed through

language, as the speaker tries to move beyond clichés and find amore authentic way of expressing feeling and experience

'Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.It promises light

like the careful undressing of love.

*…+ I am trying to be truthful.'



Constant struggle with language As not being sufficient to express deep emotion and aspects of women’s

experience

Desire - Ellipsis Warming her Pearls,

Uses euphemisms in certain poems to deal with that which is toofrightening ( Girl Talking) “She made blood”, “we guard our hearts”

But also uses it to shock

in Standing Female Nude … “ Belly Nipple Arse” language used in anunfeminine way goes with the agenda of the poem which is that shecannot be represented and will not be appropriated or reduced tomale gaze. In the same way her use of language will not be dictated bywhat is deemed ‘ladylike’ So challenges language as attempting toappropraite BUT ALSO

Acknowledges Language as defining

Whoever She Was “my maiden name sounds wrong” – language ashaving the power to change identity and the way a woman viewsherself



Plays with language to try to create new

meaning

The Way My Mother Speaks “nothing is silent, nothing isnot silent” and “I am happy and sad”, “ I am homesick,free, in love’

Consider the simultaneous existence of seemingly

contradictory emotions This seems to be the same for women’s experiences

of love, longing, desire and loss. In I Remember Me – “wordless barefaced truths”

Suggests That because language is insufficiently

catered to women , it can also dilute what is thetruth if we try to represent women’s experiencesthrough this limited means

and yet as a poet that is her tool! Hence, A constanttension



Tension in Language

Correspondents

“We have the language of stuffed birds, teacups, we don’t

have the language of bodies” – the lack of words or

physical language as limiting or crippling. But “I read your dark words and do to myself things you

can only imagine’ “ I have called your name over and over

in my head at the point your fiction brings me to” - that

language/fiction in the sense of the letter/fantasy/words

have power to release desire as well. Reflective of the tension of patriarchy, not just on

women but individuals



Language and experience

In River, she questions how who we are is defined by languagebut also how language is dependent on who we are.

It is defining because “she feels she is somewhere elsebecause of words”

But also if “if you were really there, what would you write”.How would you represent it through language?

Language as unable to capture experience entirely because“what would you write on a postcard, or on the sand,(washedaway) near where the river runs into the sea” – it will againchange. But also nature remains what it is, it is only how we

perceive it that changes when language changes. While language can define/limit us…it can also give us a sense

of place and identity. While it cannot express everything, it isalso our only tool with which to translate experience



In conclusion

Duffy sees language as both inadequate in

encapsulating women’s experience but also

as necessary

As defining and therefore limiting but also as

empowering because it gives a sense of place

and belonging

Her poems are constantly exploring thesetensions

language and women&rsquo;s place 2011

Documents

language and women’s place 2011