Part I Example Programme Plan for Language, Power and Gender

1. Compare two similar chapters from Deborah Tannen You Just Don't Understand and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (Linguist versus popular self-help book).

2. Man made Language by Dale Spender:male superiority is not to be confused with male power: only one is a myth which can be exposed and eradicated by knowledge, by a change in

consciousness. While they are different, however, they are also inextricably linked, for male superiority has served as a justification for male power.

3. The Women's Room by Marilyn French and

A Room of one's Own by Virginia Woolf

4. Sarah Palin (Saturday Night Live on Youtube) vs Obama. Compare one of their speeches.

Assignment: Find two texts and show how their choice of words (diction) identifies the gender, social status and power. Give examples from both texts.

Andrea Landau and Carla van Wissen