Discourse and Social Change --from "personal" to "political"

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1999-12

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Tokyo: Gendai Nihongo Kenkyuukai

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Abstract

This study attempts to understand the contemporary problems for Japanese women from a feminist point of view by analyzing the media discourse that dealt with a series of political incidents triggered by the confession of a former geisha. It was an event most compellingly revealing the conflicting powers in the process of change from the tradition of uniquely Japanese patriarchy to the post-patriarchy. It shows that the division constructed during the feudal era between two women classes, ordinary family women and sexual women, is still deeply ingrained in the mind of the Japanese people, women and men, that the contradiction is particularly complex when a woman of the lower women class asserts gender equality. Her confession played a crucial role in the national politics, leading to the historical defeat of the conservative party in the national election and the quick resignation of the Prime Minister. I analyze the discursive texts available through mass media and discuss the uniquely complex problems of women of contemporary Japan.

Description

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phatic communion, involvement, no-desu construction, demonstrative fillers, backchannel, speech act, pause fillers, interactional particles, media discourse

Citation

Katsue A Reynolds (1999). Discourse and Social Change--from "personal" to "political." Tokyo: Gendai Nihongo Kenkyukai

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17 pages

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