Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality / Edition 1

by Kira Hall, Anna Livia

Overview

This pioneering collection of previously unpublished articles on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender language combines queer theory and feminist theory with the latest thinking on language and gender. The book expands the field well beyond the study of "gay slang" to consider gay dialects (such as Polari in England), early modern discourse on gay practices, and late twentieth-century descriptions of homosexuality. These essays examine the conversational patterns of queer speakers in a wide variety of settings, from women's friendship groups to university rap groups and electronic mail postings.

Taking a global—rather than regional—approach, the contributors herein study the language usage of sexually liminal communities in a variety of linguistic and cultural contexts, such as lesbian speakers of American Sign Language, Japanese gay male couples, Hindi-speaking hijras (eunuchs) in North India, Hausa-speaking 'yan daudu (feminine men) in Nigeria, and French and Yiddish gay groups. The most accessible and diverse collection of its kind, Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality sets a new standard in the study of language's impact on the construction of sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195104714
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	11/28/1997
Series:	Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Yale University

Table of Contents

Introduction, Anna Livia and Kira Hall, Editors
Part 1: LAVENDER LEXICALITY
Two Lavender Issues for Linguists, Arnold Zwicky, Stanford University and Ohio State University
The Elusive Bisexual: Social Categorization and Lexico-Semantic Change, M. Lynne Murphy
Les Molles et les chausses: Mapping the Isle of Hermaphrodites in Pre-Modern France, Randy P. Conner, University of Texas
The Color of His Eyes: Polari and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Ian Lucas
Pots and Pans: Identification of Queer Japanese in Terms of Discrimination, James Valentine
Talking about Feygelekh: A Queer Male Representation in Jewish American Speech, Michael J. Sweet
Read My Lips: Clypping and Kyssing in the 16th Century, Diane Watt, University of Aberystwyth, Wales
Sappho, or the Importance of Culture in the Language of Love, Marie-Jo Bonnet, Paris France
Lexical Variation in the Deaf Community Relating to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Signs, Mala Kleinfeld and Noni Warner
The Elusive "Bisexual", Lynne Murphy, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Part 2: QUEERSPEAK
The Homo-Genius Community, Rusty Barrett, University of Texas at Austin
"Falling Short of God's Ideal": Public Discourse about Lesbians and Gays, Elizabeth Morrish, Nottingham Trent University
Que(e)rying Friendship: Discourses of Resistance and the Construction of Gendered Subjectivity, Jennifer Coates and Mary Ellen Jordan, Roehampton Institute and Melbourne University
"I Don't Speak Spritch": Locating Lesbian Language, Robin M. Queen
Narrative Iconicity in Electronic-Mail, Lesbian Coming- Out Stories, Kathleen M. Wood
The Creation of Coherence in Coming-Out Stories, A. C. Liang
Performative Effect in Three Gay English Texts, William Leap, American University
Homophobic Slang as Coercive Discourse Among College Students, James Armstrong, State University of New York, Plattsburgh
Deaf Identity, Lesbian Identity: Intersections in a Life Narrative, Tina Neumann, Gallaudet University
Toward the Study of Lesbian Speech, Birch Moonwomon-Baird, Ohio State University
Part 3: LINGUISTIC GENDER-BENDING
Disloyal to Masculinity: Linguistic Gender and Liminal Identity in French, Anna Livia
Surrogate Phonology and Transsexual Faggotry, Bruce Bagemihl, University of British Colombia, Canada
Linguistic Gender Play amoung French Gays and Lesbians, Genevieve Pastre, Publisher, les Octaviennes, France
The Gendering of the Gay Male Sex Class in Japan, Janet Shibamoto Smith, University of California at Davis
Not Talking Straight in Hausa, Rudolf Gaudio, Stanford University
Go Suck Your Husband's Sugarcane: Hijras and the Use of Sexual Insult, Kira Hall, University of California at Berkeley

Editorial Reviews

"This work is a wonderfully readable anthology of recent research in the relatively new field of queer linguistics....an excellent survey...a good introduction to the field for graduate students and professional anthropologists and linguists."—Anthropological Linguistics

"Breaks new ground....Recommended for academic collections and large comprehensive gay and lesbian public library collections."—Library Journal

"The editors are to be thanked for having assembled such a rich feast."—The Women's Review of Books

From the Publisher

This compilation of research on the peculiar use of language in gay and lesbian communities breaks new ground. The first of three parts, "Liminal Lexicality," documents lexical usage and variation in deaf, Jewish, Japanese, and other communities. "Queerspeak" looks at "computer-mediated text" (E-mail), homophobic slang, media reports, and literary language to conclude whether characteristics specific to gay and lesbian speech must be found exclusively in speech to label them as "gay." Finishing the volume, "Linguistic Gender-bending" examines the fluid nature of gender and sexuality and how that may be seen in the conscious use of language as it applies to hermaphrodites, the castrated hijras of India, Nigerian transvestites, Yoruba priests, Parisian gays, and Japanese same-sex couples. Of interest to sociologists, linguists, and gay studies professionals, this is recommended for academic collections and large comprehensive gay and lesbian public library collections.Kevin M. Roddy, Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo Lib.

Library Journal

Reflecting a commitment to social diversity and queer theory, these 20 essays for linguists challenge tidy definitions of social groupings based on demographic categories. The contributors investigate such issues as the indexical value of language choices, the interconnectedness of dialect and register, and the critical link between language and power. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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