University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2014 The home girls in Olga Masters' fiction: A Linguistic Representation of Femininity Thu Hanh Nguyen University of Wollongong, Australia Recommended Citation Nguyen, Thu Hanh, The home girls in Olga Masters' fiction: A Linguistic Representation of Femininity, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, 2014. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4527 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] Department of Law, Humanities and the Arts The Home Girls in Olga Masters’ Fiction: A Linguistic Representation of Femininity Thu Hanh Nguyen “This thesis is presented as part of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Wollongong” December 2014 THESIS CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION I, Thu Hanh Nguyen, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Thu Hanh Nguyen December 2014 i ABSTRACT The main aim of this research has been to explore the linguistic representation of femininity and female experience in Olga Masters’ stories. Specifically this research examines character depiction through Masters’ choices of transitivity patterns and lexical elements in her stories. The research relates this linguistic representation of femininity to the socio-political view demonstrated in her writing, in opposition to the common view that Masters merely uses a ‘plain’ style of writing to create ‘simple’ stories about ‘humble’ people.