Review Language, Gender, and Community in Late Twentieth

g&l (print) issn 1747–6321 g&l (online) issn 1747–633x Review

Language, Gender, and Community in Late Twentieth-Century Fiction: American Voices and American Identities Mary Jane Hurst (2011)

New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 238

Reviewed by Olga Pahom

The lack of dialogue between the fields of linguistics and literature has been detrimental to both areas for a long time. Mary Jane Hurst’s Language, Gender, and Community in Late Twentieth-Century Fiction: American Voices and American Identities uses both linguistic and literary methods to study how 20th-century American writers use the themes of language, gender and community to construct American identities. The book is valu- able not only for students and scholars of literature and linguistics, but also for anthropologists, sociologists and those interested in interdisciplinary approaches to gender and language. The book is organized into seven chapters, including an introduction, a concluding chapter and five chapters discussing the themes of language, gender and community in the works of 10 late 20th-century American authors. Hurst focuses on the following writers: Ernest Gaines, Alice Walker, Ann Beattie, John Updike, Chang-rae Lee, Amy Tan, Louise Erdrich, Michael Dorris, Denise Chavéz and Rudolfo Anaya. Each of the five main chapters analyses novels by one male and one female author associated with a similar ethnic or cultural identity. Thus, the book is organized around African American, European American, Asian American, Native American and Mexican American identities with significant overlap and mixing between them. Each chapter consists of four main parts: an introduction highlight- ing the backgrounds of the authors and the key themes in their works, an

Affiliation

Department of English, Texas Tech University, USA. email: [email protected] g&l vol 7.3 2013 417–420 doi : 10.1558/genl.v7i3.417 ©2013, equinox publishing 418 olga pahom analysis of each of the two novels separately, and a section titled ‘Compara- tive Observations’ which provides similarities and differences between the two authors in their treatment of language, gender and community. In Chapter One, Hurst introduces the writers included in the study and the central ‘figure of the lone American’ found in the mainstream fiction of the 1990s. The anxiety about the loneliness of the characters is expressed through language and is connected with each character’s gendered identity as an individual and as part of a group. Language is also the primary means of finding and expressing one’s identity and place in the community. The author also presents the five ethnic and cultural identities to be analysed in the book and explains that each character struggles with the social constructs of gender, language and community as they try to form their American identity. In addition, the chapter provides a brief overview of the key concepts and theories that shape the study of gender and language in both literature and linguistics, so that even readers unfamiliar with the topic can engage with the book. Chapter Two compares Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying and Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy. While on the surface the two novels seem concerned with different issues (capital punishment in Gaines and female genital mutilation in Walker), Hurst argues that they share a concern for African American identities. For example, both Gaines’s male main character and Walker’s female protagonist struggle with finding their place in the community. Ultimately, both use language to find their voices in a hostile environment, which leads them to connect their gendered identities to the community. Hurst effectively connects gender and language in each novel through both a literary perspective (using symbolism and the concept of ‘the other’) and a linguistic one (using the features of African American Vernacular English and of storytelling). Chapter Three looks at the role of language and gender in the academic communities of Ann Beattie’s Another You and John Updike’s Memories of the Ford Administration. While both novels focus on the identity of white male characters, Hurst also shows the role language plays in the identity- formation of minor female characters. White masculinity and femininity are analysed in literary ways (using point of view and character descrip- tions) and linguistic ones (using the features of same-sex and cross-sex conversations). The author successfully shows how men and women use language differently, but she also convincingly argues that language and communication are key to establishing one’s personal identity and place in the community regardless of sex and gender. In Chapter Four, Hurst focuses on the use of gender and language in the construction of Asian American identities in Chang-rae Lee’s Native language, gender, and community 419

Speaker and Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses. The author shows how Lee’s Korean and Tan’s Chinese heritage influenced the issues described in the two novels. Lee’s male protagonist and Tan’s female central character are both struggling with finding their places in the midst of ethnic and marital circles. The characters oscillate between assimilation, hybridiza- tion, and separation from their communities. The gender issues are not fully resolved in the two novels, but both the males and the females are shown to use language as a way to deal with their identity struggles. Hurst again artfully demonstrates the connection between language and gender through literary approaches (the use of food and doubling motifs and the power of the narrative) and linguistic means (the concept of face and the use of speech and silence). Chapter Five analyses Louise Erdrich’s Tales of Burning Love, Michael Dorris’s Cloud Chamber, and their co-written story The Crown of Colum- bus. The author draws parallels between Erdrich and Dorris’s troubled marriage and the themes of love, destruction and wounded hearts in their works. The Native American heritage of both authors is shown to influence their characters’ struggle with shifting identities. Linguistically, speech and silence are shown to unite as well as separate males and females, while storytelling is central to individual healing and redemption. Hurst also presents an effective literary analysis (using the themes of creation and res- urrection, the metaphors of earth, wind, fire and water, and various points of view), which peels away the layers of gender complexity and ambiguity across various generations of men and women. In Chapter Six, the author explores the Mexican American identities in Denise Chavéz’s Face of an Angel and Rudolfo Anaya’s Albuquerque. She starts with a background section explaining the history of the Southwest and the issues unique to the Hispanic Americans inhabiting it. This part is especially helpful for readers who are unfamiliar with the language and identity struggles of Hispanic Americans. Language is shown to be the primary means of finding one’s voice, coming to terms with one’s gendered identity, and fitting within the American culture. Gender is presented as intimately connected with language and shaped by a community’s cultural and religious heritage. Hurst effectively employs both a literary analysis (of biblical allusions and of the religious and historic symbols of Malintzin, the Virgin of Guadalupe and Aztlán) and a linguistic description (of bilingual- ism and code-switching) to achieve a complete picture of how language, gender and community function in the two novels. Chapter Seven offers a summary of the main ways in which language, gender, and community are used by the 10 authors to create American identities. The author highlights diversity as a key component to American 420 olga pahom identity and shows how the themes described in the book relate to current events in American history and relevant issues in the 21st century. The book successfully illustrates how language, gender and community are used by late 20th-century American authors. The choice of writers from five ethnic and cultural backgrounds shows Hurst’s sensitivity to the diverse notion of American identity. Furthermore, the description of each writer’s background sheds light on the main issues discussed in each book and makes the material accessible even to readers unfamiliar with the fea- tured authors. The organization of each chapter makes both the analysis of each novel and their comparative discussion easy to follow. Hurst presents a wealth of linguistic concepts and approaches to literature which both literature and linguistics scholars will find interesting; she is also careful to define and explain key concepts, making the material accessible even to novices in the two fields. The comparisons made to other literary works help to put the selected novels in context, and the connection to real-life events and people make the book relevant for a wide audience. One limita- tion of the book acknowledged by Hurst herself is the absence of impor- tant 20th-century writers from other ethnic communities. However, given the limitations of any book project, it is understandable that Hurst focuses only on some cultural American identities. She is careful to emphasize the overlap and mixing of ethnic categories throughout the book. Hurst’s greatest contribution is the bridging of linguistic and literary perspectives in the study of language, gender and community. She effectively uses both approaches and renders a unique analysis that benefits not only readers interested in linguistics and literature but also those curious about new ways of studying gender and language. This makes the book interesting, useful and accessible to undergraduate, graduate and other scholarly communities interested in gender, language and literature.