Gender Context in Thomas Hardy’s Novel “Far From The Madding Crowd”: Linguocultural Aspect

The era of the Internet and social networks has exacerbated the discussion about gender roles, the very notions of man and woman. The ability to hide or change your gender in virtual space has catalyzed similar processes in ordinary reality. Today, gender self-identification and disputes regarding gender stereotypes and relevant gender roles are becoming more and more widespread. The attention of society is focused on the problems of the LGBTQ+ movement, people of the “third sex”, children’s conscious choice of their gender, the fight against all kinds of oppression (with the development of the new term - harassment), the planetary movement of #MeToo etc.
The issue of gender began to be widely discussed in the Victorian era - the era of rethinking cultural and social values - and which was reflected in English literature of that time.
A special contribution to the rethinking of the gender context of the era was made by the English writer Thomas Hardy. In his work, contemporaries saw a peculiar project of new ideas about masculine and feminine features, which is formed on the basis of rich linguistic tools and a transposition of gender roles. A special place in the work of Thomas Hardy is occupied by the novel “Far from the Madding Crowd”, in which the writer introduced the type of a new woman with the help of the main female character - Bathsheba Everdene. The sociocultural portrait of the era, created by the author around the life of the main feminine character of the novel, allowed to rethink the classical ideas about gender roles.
Due to the lack of the knowledge of the classic examples for constructing a gender context in the world literature in general and in English literature in particular, which are needed more than ever in our times, it seems relevant to focus on one of the examples of classical literature - the novel “Far from the madding crowd”. by Thomas Hardy.
The object of the research is the gender context (gender discourse) of Thomas Hardy’s novel “Far from the madding crowd”, the subject is the linguistic means of construction of the gender context in the novel. The goal of the research is to highlight and clarify the linguistic tools (methods and tools) that were used by Thomas Hardy during the formation of the gender context of the novel “Far from the madding crowd”.
Chapter 1 outlines the methodology, methods and tools used for the analysis
The analysis sequence is selected on the basis of works, which are central for gender linguistics, which include the works of such linguists as Robin Lakoff, Robert Staller, Don Zimmerman, Olga Voronina etc.
In addition to the works of the linguists mentioned, the experience of modern researchers on the problem of constructing gender is also considered. This includes works of such scholars as Laurel Westbrook, Olena Levchenko, Richard Watts and others.
Despite the sufficient amount of methodological material, the issue of linguocultural aspect in the analysis of the novel remains important for our study. This question has become the subject of study in such a field of knowledge as cultural discourse analysis. Many scientists, such as Acheson, Braithwaite, Carbaugh, Covarrubias have contributed to the development in this area. In our analysis, we agree with the methodology suggested by Carbaugh, in which he distinguishes such meanings as personhood, relationships, action and emotion and will apply those meanings during the analysis, which will allow to expand the boundaries of the analysis and also identify the deviation from prototypical feminine and masculine traits depending on the context.
Chapter 2 begins with a brief analysis of the characterization of the two male characters in the novel, which Thomas Hardy gives.
The first subsection of Chapter 2 is devoted to the analysis of the masculine features of the figure of Gabriel Oak, the second - to the figure of Troy. Linguistic analysis is based on the method of identifying the opposition of male and female traits proposed by Serova. The goal is to identify deviations (deviations from the norm of masculinity for the Victorian era), manifested during the interaction of the characters with the main female character, Bathsheba Everdene. Sections consist of 1) author’s description of characteristics of the masculine figure in the role of the narrator; 2) analysis of communicative situations with the participation of a character, with the establishment of cases of deviation of the image from the classic male features characteristic of the Victorian novel; 3) refinement of the results based on an analysis of the communicative interactions of the characters with the secondary characters of the novel. The speech acts of the characters in communication are analyzed, special attention is paid to the perlocutionary effect of speech acts. Attention is paid to the characteristics of personhood of the characters, the relationship between them, emotions and actions they perform. In the second section, these points of analysis are supplemented by the opposing masculine figure to the image of Gabriel Oak in the face of Francis Troy.
Intermediate conclusions are provided regarding the development of the characters of the novel, as well as their gender and social deviation.
Chapter 3 begins with a brief analysis of the characterization of the two male characters in the novel, which Thomas Hardy gives.
First section is dedicated to the constituent of personhood, in which the perception of both characters and their brief storyline by the characters and the narrator is analyzed. The analysis is aimed at finding deviations from the classical image of a woman, who is considered to be Fanny Robin due to her similarities with the tables of masculine/feminine attributes used for the analysis. Second section focuses on the constituent of emotions in order to find the reaction of each heroine to the social situations and caused by the interaction with masculine characters. Constituent of emotion distinguishes behavior of heroines from rather feminine or masculine side of the character. Third section, which is dedicated to the constituent of action, which aims at finding deviations from classical attributes of masculinity/femininity.

Bilokobylskyi Y. О. Gender Context in Thomas Hardy’s Novel “Far From The Madding Crowd”: Linguocultural Aspect : master’s thesis : 035 Philology / Bilokobylskyi Yurii Olexandrovych. - Kyiv, 2020. - 97 р.