Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This article employs corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to examine gender stereotyping in three isiZulu novels: Indlela Yababi (The Path of the Wicked; 1946) by RRR Dhlomo, Inkinsela yaseMgungundlovu (The Tycoon of Pietermaritzburg; 1961) by CLS Nyembezi, and Kuxolelwa Abanjani? (Who Deserves to be Forgiven? 2002) by NG Sibiya. These novels were selected to roughly represent three eras relevant to the socio-political context of South Africa, i.e. the pre-apartheid era, the apartheid era, and the post-apartheid era. In this paper, we focus mainly on the ways in which body parts of female and male characters are used, and the ways in which they are described in the selected texts. The body parts that are analysed are: isandla and izandla (hand and hands), amehlo (eyes), ikhanda (head) and ubuso (face). We investigate whether the ways in which female and male characters use their body parts, if the ways in which they are described represents female and male characters in stereotypical ways, and whether they reveal aspects of power relations between women and men.