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8 - Gender(ed) Language and the Linguistics of Sexuality

from Part Two - Knowledges and Domains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2023

By
Stephanie Rudwick
Edited by
Cecilia McCallum ,
Silvia Posocco  and
Martin Fotta
Cecilia McCallum
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil
Silvia Posocco
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
Martin Fotta
Affiliation:
Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences
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Summary

The first part of this chapter provides a brief overview of the developments in the study of language, gender, and sexuality, with a focus on anthropological works and leading ethnographies, while the second part focuses on a particular case study from South Africa. It aims to capture examples of the multiple, flexible, and fluid ways in which linguistic, gender, and sexual identities are entangled and how they are negotiated in relation to power. The case study focuses on Zulu speakers, South Africa’s largest ethnolinguistic group. Ethnographic detail from the province of KwaZulu-Natal provides a nuanced discussion of how gendered and sexual Zulu identities are represented through three selected linguistic styles and how despite important differences in the Zulu ways of speaking and being, there are also remarkable commonalities that expose a matrix of oppression based on patriarchy, sexual and gender(ed) “otherness,” as well as pervasive heteronormativity and racism. The study demonstrates that African spaces provide a multitude of linguistic resources to recalibrate previous thinking around language, gender, and sexualities by theorizing with a “southern” lens.

Keywords

languagegendersexual identitiesSouth AfricaisiZuluisiHloniphoisiTsotsiisiNgqumo
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality , pp. 213 - 236
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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