Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse (review)

This collection of twenty papers integrates inter-disciplinary scholarship on the subject of language, gender, and identities and examines the diversity and multiplicity of the concepts embodied in practice. The volume is prefaced by a clearly written introduction by Mary Bucholtz. The introduction (3–24) articulates the background and rationale for the new scholarship in gender and language, and it entices readers to open their eyes to the advent of a new era. The past liaisons of linguistics and feminism produced studies based on the ‘difference’ and ‘dominance’ models, but they are met with criticism from a new wave of scholars from diverse backgrounds. Recent developments in both fields have turned to discourse as a powerful source of identity construction, manifestation, and display; so linguistics is called to play a role once again. The new approach represented in this volume views language users as dynamic, multivocal agents with the power to control rather than as passive beings whose languages are mere reflections of rigid classifications of gender, ethnicity, race, and class.

Part 1, ‘Identity as invention’ (27–119), explores identity construction through various discourse: in African American women’s talk studied by Marcyliena Morgan, in Lakhota by Sara Trechter, in deaf and hearing lesbian coming-out stories by Kathleen M. Wood, in Latina and Latino students’ writings by Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, and in interactions of an agoraphobic woman with family members by Lisa Capps.

In Part 2, ‘Identity as ideology’ (123–217), researchers examine how ideology is manifest through women’s discourse as well as in how women are talked about: Jennifer Coats writes on teenage girls’ conversations over a three-year period, Caitlin Hines on the metaphor of ‘woman as dessert’, Laurel Sutton on on-line journals and self-published zines, Rebecca Dobkins on letters written by Native American mothers to school officials in the early twentieth century, and Keith Walters on an interview in Tunisia that reveals the participants’ complex identities and religious ideology.

Group membership does not always prescribe identity nor does it permanently determine one’s linguistic behaviors. In Part 3, ‘Identity as ingenuity’ (221–305), this point is illustrated by Deborah Tannen’s work on same-sex interactions and display of identities, and by Patricia Sawin’s work on the narrative style of an elderly Appalachian woman. William Leap shows the connection between acquiring language for self-expression and creation of gay identity in adolescents. Norma Mendoza-Denton points out the complexity of understanding identity in Latina girls’ interactions. A unique piece by A. C. Liang tests the Gricean maxims with sample conversations between people who assume different sexual orientations.

Part 4, ‘Identity as improvisation’ (313–409), investigates identities in understudied contexts. Rusty Barrett observes the language of African American drag queens while Anna Livia investigates pronoun systems and their implications in feminist fictions. Bucholtz’s paper examines discourse of the shopping channel, a recently created stage for identity displays both by the hosts and the consumers. Colleen Cotter’s research is on Irish-language radio and nongendered roles performed by two female speakers. Marjorie Harness Goodwin finds unconventional features of Latina girls’ interactions during hopscotch play.

The collection encompasses an impressively wide variety of identities and their intersections as seen through their embodied practices. Its strength is that it effectively addresses scholars in many disciplines, including those who viewed past work on language and gender critically, and it suggests more possibilities for future research.