Perspectives Of Gender And Language In Cameroonian Contexts

by Lilian Lem Atanga

This book brings to light work done in the area of gender with a penchant to language within the Cameroonian context. It looks at different domains of gender study where language is a significant variable. It is the very first edited collection that examines language and gender side by side. Contributors draw richly on their current theoretical leanings and on the current gendered discourses within the Cameroonian context to interrogate the interconnections between gender and language through social relationships and interactions. This is a pluri-disciplinary study informed by perspectives from anthropology, sociology and applied linguistics. The book hinges on gender, discourse and social change in historical perspective. Gender and language studies contribute to knowledge of new problems in view of a better understanding of relations between women and men, and its amelioration in the social space. Gender and language studies necessarily incorporate gender and discourse studies. Discourse serves as a unifying factor to these diverse disciplines which bring external support to pure linguistic studies, not only to deepen the understanding of gender but more so to describe how it works in discourse. Here, discourse is seen as being at the centre of gender ideology.

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Reviews

“This new volume on gender within the constantly changing Cameroonian context from the perspective of language and discourse analyses is particularly welcome. The contributions are accessibly written and provide us with good insight on this new and important field of study. The book will surely be of great interest to anybody interested in language and gender, as well as in African sociolinguistics and discourse studies.”: Dr Piet Konings, Sociologist, African Studies Centre Leiden, the Netherlands