Title:

Constructing a socially acceptable female identity:The case of nineteenth-century advice manualsfor women

Group publication title:

Token

Creator:

Shvanyukova, Polina

Keywords:

advice literature ; women ; identity ; conduct ; etiquette

Abstract:

In this study I conduct an exploratory corpus-based study of nineteenth-century advice manuals for women with a view to investigating the ways in which these texts ideologically and discursively construct a model of socially acceptable female identity. The analysis is based on a corpus of twenty advice manuals published in Britain between 1810 and 1878. By combining a quantitative analysis of keywords with manual investigation of concordance lines containing the most frequent keywords, I examine the parameters within which the model of socially acceptable female identity is discursively constructed. My analysis shows that, by learning to control their bodies, voices and speech, nineteenth-century women readers internalised the model presented in advice literature in order to become desirable to men of a good social position (Armstrong 2014).

Place of publishing:

Kielce

Physical description:

S. 59-83

ISSN:

2299-5900

Publisher:

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jana Kochanowskiego w Kielcach

Date issued:

2021

Identifier:

doi:10.25951/4844

Language:

angielski

Is part of:

Token : A Journal of English Linguistics

Has part:

vol. 12/2021

Type:

tekst

Format:

application/pdf