Fleshing Out Models of Gender in English-Language Novels (1850 – 2000)

Bibliographic Data

ID21245394
AuthorsJonathan Cheng (University of Nebraska–Lincoln, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume5
Issue1
Publication date2020-01-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cultural Analytics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2371-4549 • E-ISSN: 2371-4549
PublisherCA: Journal of Cultural Analytics (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.22148/001c.11652
OpenAlexW3000500424
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited3

Distant readers have used predictive modelling to study the strength of the relationship between characterization and binary notions of gender. This essay builds on that research, shedding light on several historical trends concerning anatomical description and its relationship to gender. Some of the evidence suggests that bodily language has long played a larger role in configuring fictional women than it did for fictional men. Other evidence implies that bodily characteristics were increasingly bifurcated along a gender binary, reflecting how characters are more and more physically sorted along a feminine-masculine axis. Taken altogether, this essay unpacks a suggestive correlation: a growing aspect of characterization was increasingly imbricated in heteronormative discourses. By weighing the discrepancies between the evidence presented in this essay, and that of its predecessors, this essay will ultimately suggest that disaggregating statistical models can unfold patterns of literary change that would otherwise remain suppressed

Binary opposition · Linguistics · Sociology · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Gender Studies · Gender Studies in Language · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Philosophy · Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access