Representation of Male and Female Characters in Woolf’s Selected Fictions: A Corpus Based Stylistic Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21015/vtess.v11i3.1773Abstract
The present research comprises a corpus-based stylistic analysis of Woolf’s selected fiction, To the Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway. This study aims to examine the representation of men and women in the chosen texts. For this purpose, adjectives have been chosen from both novels that have been employed with both male and female characters. The methodology utilized is mixed-method which merges the qualitative analysis with the quantitative one. The examples of tables along with concordance lines are taken from a specialized corpus of two novels with the aid of the software LancsBox (Version 6.0). The present study has revealed that the terms man and woman have occurred 184 times and 119 times respectively. The use of positive adjectives with male characters is more frequent than with female characters. Male characters portrayed by Virginia Woolf are shown as dominating, autonomous, and powerful. The adjectives employed with men are mostly related to their status and personality. Whereas, negative adjectives used with women reflect their demeaning, struggling, and inferior status. Actually, Woolf has employed adjectives to counteract gender bias in her chosen works, though she has portrayed women in a negative light and men in a positive light. This research will prove as a great contribution to the emerging field of corpus linguistics, integrating corpus studies with gender studies and it will recommend further investigation regarding gender roles in multiple contexts.
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