Taking a Poststructuralist Perspective on Language and Gender

This book deals with conversational styles in all-male and all-female groups. The aim and scope of this study is to analyze conversations of single-sex and mixed-sex interactions with respect to conversational styles within the postmodern framework. The first part of this book consists of the presentation, discussion and critical evaluation of crucial study results within the three main frameworks to the language and gender area. The second part comprises an empirical study of 7 transcribed conversations from the TV series Desperate Housewives. The aim of this study was to analyze the representation of conversational behavior of men and women in single-sex and mixed-sex-groups.The transcribed conversations were analyzed for topic choice, topic control, interruptions, conversational dominance, the form and function of humor as well as for features which have been traditionally assigned to men and women, respectively. The implications which can be derived from the study are summarized in the closing section of this book.

Sarah Irrasch, born in 1984 , graduated in English and American Studies from the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, specializing in language and gender studies.