Indian Readers discussion

Language, as much as it is a means of free expression, has also been a tool for repression. The structuring of language in a particular way is symptomatic of the power relations within any society - and it has repercussions way beyond the era. Language is also a tool for manipulation, systematic brainwashing and a means of gaining control over those who have been silenced.

With this view in mind, can anyone suggest books/articles regarding this topic (preferably academic ones) - how language is used as a tool for marginalizing women (whether or not its emphasis is on sci-fi)?

Even if you cannot think of any books, simply names of theorists/authors who have dealt with this issue too will be of great help.

I am familiar with the works of Cultural Studies theorists, psychoanalysts, Marxists and feminists (not necessarily in the same order) like Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Antonio Gramsci, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in this respect and am searching for similar works.

Freudian theory is out of bounds due to its supposed patriarchal/phallic roots, so I'd appreciate the works of his and Lacan's successors.

Also I'd be grateful to be recommended works on Marxist theory with reference to Gender on the lines of the works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - a postmodern Marxist feminist - to be precise.

More specifically, I'd like works with postmodernist leanings - but even modernist ones are okay. The request is put forward in order to help me with my research so if anybody is familiar with critical works on the subject of gender and language in sci-fi/cyberpunk/feminist sci-fi/feminist cyberpunk, it would be absolutely wonderful.

Thanks.

sorry, I can;t help you out here. Maybe someone really learned in this area can do so... though I dont remember any IR member with such qualifications

I suppose so :( But I take chances with the hope someone might have some idea - I often find help in the most unlikely places. Thanks though :)

I have read this one: Women Who Run with the Wolves. It is about female psychology but analyzed through fairy tales. It is a very interesting book about the psyche of women but I don't know if this is what you are looking for.

"Stuff of Thought : Language as a Window Into Human Nature" By Steven Pinker may help you.
Also "Blank Slate" by same author.
You can also refer to the works of legendary anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss ("Tristes Tropiques" is the most popular)

Thanks dely - I'm not sure if it will work here, but still I'll take a look.

@Vikas - I'll surely look up the suggestions - not heard of those books. Levi-Strauss is a structuralist, studying myths through linguistic patterns, but it rather defies my purpose - I'm looking for post-structuralist/post-modernist analyses, like those of Jacques Derrida (Deconstruction) rather than works of structuralists.

Thanks - they're good for building up the background for feminism - TBRed.

Can someone suggest a good guide to Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva? I'm currently re-reading A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present and having a tough time understanding the two.

I have a basic understanding of them, but their concepts are very difficult to understand.

Thanks.

does anybody know where to get an english translation of "maktub" by paulo coelho