Advanced psycholinguistics: A Bressanone retrospective for Giovanni D. Flores d'Arcais ed. by Willem J. M. Levelt (review)

654 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 74, NUMBER 3 (1998) semantic extension of honeycomb to spleen and their association with fish roe is based on physical design similarities, as explained through illustrations. Ch. 3, 'The fish as the support of the earth' (61-74), addresses the fish's place in Eurasian mythology . S applies the linguistic evidence amassed in the earlier chapters to three accounts of the earthquake -fish myth to conclude his argument that semantic ties between the fish and its support role exist. This chapter's brevity does not allow much exploration of the ways the semantic relationships affect analyses of the myths' meaning or social context, so readers interested in learning more details of S's study might wish to refer to his 1970 dissertation presented at the University of California Los Angeles . [Kim Honeyford, University ofAlberta.] Feminism and discourse: Psychological perspectives. Ed. by Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger. London: Sage Publications 1995. Pp. vii, 193. The nine chapters in this volume bring together the various strands of analytic research in feminist psychologist discourse. The book consists of two parts: Part 1, 'Empirical work', is concerned with the application of discourle analysis within the feminist context; Part 2, "Theoretical advances', argues and evaluates the value of the former to the latter. The topics in Part 1 share the basic assumption that the language through which personal experiences are framed does more than just play a reflective, afterevent role; it helps us to categorize the world. The first chapter, by Kathryn Matthews Lovering, deals with adolescent knowledge about menstruation and criticizes current sex education in school. Celia Kitzinger and Alison Thomas's chapter discusses the social construction of the term 'sexual harassment' . Unlike positivist literature, which seeks an indisputable definition of the term, discourse analysts focus on its discursively-defined nature. Thus, the authors highlight the techniques 'through which the erasure of sexual harassment is achieved' (45) and how differences in social perceptions contribute to its different definitions. The importance of acknowledging diversity is taken up in Ch. 3, by Erica Burman, with cross-cultural data from mass media representation showing how cultural representations of childhood influence the way we look at and treat children. Ch. 4, by Julie Hepworth and Christine Griffin, deals with anorexia nervosa and juxtaposes feminist and medical perspectives. While the medical professions see it as an individual pathology, feminists interpret it through the patriarchal system, examining the ideological baggage behind this type of terminology . Central to the second part ofthe book are the issues of extra-discursive dimension and of what constitutes social transformation as well as political intervention . Chs. 5 (Wendy Hallway), 7 (Margaret Wetherell), and 8 (Corinne Squire) argue for the discourse analytic approach in general, with Ch. 5 suggesting that extra-discursive experiences like egalitarian heterosex should be taken into account in emancipatory feminist discourse. Ch. 7 blurs the seeming distinction between the discursive and the extra-discursive in two extracts from romantic discourses , realizing that discourse does not take place in a social vacuum. However, when it comes to the question of politics , the general attitude toward the discourse analytic approach, especially to its postmodern version, is more negative. Ch 6, by Sue Widdicombe, points out that it does not engage the social relations with which it claims to be concerned by retreating to language categories. This kind of category ascription contributes to the formation of stereotype, functioning as a powerful social control. In order to produce a pre-established political conclusion, some discourse analysts impose the desired meaning on a piece of text without attending to what people really say. It is the author's contention that feminists who adopt this approach would undermine their political and practical ends, in which the mundane and the everyday should play the major role. Ch. 9, by Rosalind Gill, also rejects the utility of discourse analysis to feminism, but on different grounds. She argues that postmodern discourse analysis , with its deep commitment to relativism, can lead to a paralysis of political movement and social transformation by silencing voices from the side of oppression as a result of its reluctance to engage in the question of values. Thus, the author's solution is to take...