Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament

Lem Atanga

Description

This book investigates gender and power relations in the Cameroonian parliament using a critical discourse analytical approach, which focuses on social issues and seeks to expose unequal relations within institutions. The study identifies different gendered discourses within the speeches of Members of Parliament and government ministers. Consciously or unconsciously, these participants within parliamentary debates draw on topics that construct women and men in specific ways, sometimes sustaining gender stereotypes or challenging existing conditions. The way men and women are constructed using language also is indicative of gender and power relations within this particular community. The study also looks at the way men and women are constructed using traditional discourses of gender differentiation and how some of these discourses get challenged, appropriated or subverted using progressive gendered discourses that advocate equal opportunities, gender equality and gender partnership in development.

Sujets

• Gender Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956715305
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Gender, Discourse and Power
Lilian Lem Atanga
in the Cameroonian Parliament
“An insightful critical analysis of gendered parliamentary discourse that foregrounds characteristic
dominant discourse strategies, arguments and rhetorical devices employed ostensibly to construct,
entrench, sustain and legitimise patriarchal socio-cultural hegemonies, and on the other hand, equivalent
discursive strategies employed by female MPs to resist, counter, subvert and deconstruct dominant
gendered discourse in the direction of ‘gender partnership’. This makes the work, an outstanding
powerful critical analysis of the discourse of gender and power relations and a major contribution to the
gender and power debate in the developing world.”
Sammy Beban Chumbow, Professor of Language and Linguistics, University of
Yaounde, Cameroon
“This book is a pioneering study … and major contribution not only to the study of social change in
Africa, but also to gender and political linguistics.”
Dr Piet Konings, Sociologist, African Studies Centre Leiden, the Netherlands
“In Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament, Lilian Lem Atanga has
made an important, substantial and original contribution to the fast-growing gender and language fi eld.
As the fi eld now encompasses public as well as private settings, the focus on the parliament is very timely.
With this book, Dr Atanga has shown herself to be a key fi gure in the promotion of the study of
language and gender in African contexts.”
Dr Jane Sunderland, Professor of Gender and Language, University of Lancaster, UK
This book investigates gender and power relations in the Cameroonian parliament using a
critical discourse analytical approach, which focuses on social issues and seeks to expose
unequal relations within institutions. The study identifi es different gendered discourses
within the speeches of Members of Parliament and government ministers. Consciously
or unconsciously, these participants within parliamentary debates draw on topics that
construct women and men in specifi c ways, sometimes sustaining gender stereotypes or
challenging existing conditions. The way men and women are constructed using language
also is indicative of gender and power relations within this particular community. The
study also looks at the way men and women are constructed using traditional discourses
of gender differentiation and how some of these discourses get challenged, appropriated
or subverted using progressive gendered discourses that advocate equal opportunities, Lilian Lem Atangagender equality and gender partnership in development.
Lilian Lem Atanga lectures on Gender and Language and Discourse Analysis at the
University of Dschang, Cameroon. She has researched extensively on the effects of
language in institutional settings. Gender, Discourse and
Langaa Research & Publishing Power in the Cameroonian
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Imitation WhitemanGender, Discourse
and Power in the
Cameroonian
Parliament
Lilian Lem Atanga
Langaa Research & Publishing CIG
Mankon,BamendaPublisher:
Langaa RPCIG
Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
[e-mail]
www.langaa-rpcig.net
Distributed outside N. America by African Books Collective
[e-mail]
www.africanbookscollective.com
Distributed in N. America by Michigan State University Press
[e-mail]
www.msupress.msu.edu
ISBN: 9956-615-46-3
©Lilian Lem Atanga 2010
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