Sara Mills – författare

Discourses of Difference unravels the complexities of writings by British women travellers of the `high colonial' period. Sara Mills examines the relation of women travellers to colonialism, positioned as they were at the site of conflicting discourses: femininity, feminism, and patriarchal imperialism. Using feminist discourse theory, Sara Mills analyses the writings of three women travellers - Alexandra David-Neel, Mary Kingsley and Nina Mazuchelli. Her examination of agency, identity, and the contemporary social environment, is an important and inspiring step forward in post-colonial cultural and literary theory.

This lively and accessible book is the first sustained account of feminist stylistics. Mills explores such issues as sexism, political correctness, reader positioning and meaning, opening up the study of style to feminist inquiry.

Discourses of Difference unravels the complexities of writings by British women travellers of the `high colonial' period. Sara Mills examines the relation of women travellers to colonialism, positioned as they were at the site of conflicting discourses: femininity, feminism, and patriarchal imperialism. Using feminist discourse theory, Sara Mills analyses the writings of three women travellers - Alexandra David-Neel, Mary Kingsley and Nina Mazuchelli. Her examination of agency, identity, and the contemporary social environment, is an important and inspiring step forward in post-colonial cultural and literary theory.

It is impossible to imagine contemporary critical theory without the work of Michel Foucault. His radical reworkings of the concepts of power, knowledge, discourse and identity have influenced the widest possible range of theories and impacted upon disciplinary fields from literary studies to anthropology. Aimed at students approaching Foucault's texts for the first time, this volume offers:* an examination of Foucault's contexts* a guide to his key ideas* an overview of responses to his work* practical hints on 'using Foucault'* an annotated guide to his most influential works* suggestions for further reading.Challenging not just what we think but how we think, Foucault's work remains the subject of heated debate. Sara Mills' Michel Foucault offers an introduction to both the ideas and the debate, fully equipping student readers for an encounter with this most influential of thinkers.

It is impossible to imagine contemporary critical theory without the work of Michel Foucault. His radical reworkings of the concepts of power, knowledge, discourse and identity have influenced the widest possible range of theories and impacted upon disciplinary fields from literary studies to anthropology. Aimed at students approaching Foucault's texts for the first time, this volume offers:* an examination of Foucault's contexts* a guide to his key ideas* an overview of responses to his work* practical hints on 'using Foucault'* an annotated guide to his most influential works* suggestions for further reading.Challenging not just what we think but how we think, Foucault's work remains the subject of heated debate. Sara Mills' Michel Foucault offers an introduction to both the ideas and the debate, fully equipping student readers for an encounter with this most influential of thinkers.

This volume provides a broad analysis of the term 'discourse' and a thorough examination of the many theoretical assumptions surrounding it. In the revised edition of this invaluable guidebook, Sara Mills:examines the historical definitions and developments of discourseanalyzes Foucault's use of the term and its appropriation in the fields of linguistics, social psychology, and feminist, colonial and post-colonial theoryexplores the changes that have taken place in the field of critical discourse analysis since original publicationdiscusses the work of various discourse theorists, including Zizek and Bourdieu.A fully updated bibliography, new glossary and suggestions for further reading make this more than ever the essential introductory guide to the concept of discourse for students of literary theory.

This volume provides a broad analysis of the term 'discourse' and a thorough examination of the many theoretical assumptions surrounding it. In the revised edition of this invaluable guidebook, Sara Mills:*examines the historical definitions and developments of discourse*analyzes Foucault's use of the term and its appropriation in the fields of linguistics, social psychology, and feminist, colonial and post-colonial theory*explores the changes that have taken place in the field of critical discourse analysis since original publication*discusses the work of various discourse theorists, including Zizek and Bourdieu.A fully updated bibliography, new glossary and suggestions for further reading make this more than ever the essential introductory guide to the concept of discourse for students of literary theory.

Language, Gender and Feminism presents students and researchers with key contemporary theoretical perspectives, methodologies and analytical frameworks in the field of feminist linguistic analysis.Mills and Mullany cover a wide range of contemporary feminist theories and emphasise the importance of an interdisciplinary approach. Topics covered include: power, language and sexuality, sexism and an exploration of the difference between second and third wave feminist analysis. Each chapter presents examples from research conducted in different cultural and linguistic contexts which allows students to observe practical applications of all current theories and approaches. Throughout oral and written language data, from a wealth of different contexts, settings and sources, is thoroughly analysed. The book concludes with a discussion of how the field could advance and a overview of the various research methods, pertinent for future work in language and gender study.Language, Gender and Feminism is an invaluable text for students new to the discipline of Language and Gender studies within English Language, Linguistics, Communication Studies and Women’s Studies, as well as being an up-to-date resource for more established researchers and scholars.

Language, Gender and Feminism presents students and researchers with key contemporary theoretical perspectives, methodologies and analytical frameworks in the field of feminist linguistic analysis.Mills and Mullany cover a wide range of contemporary feminist theories and emphasise the importance of an interdisciplinary approach. Topics covered include: power, language and sexuality, sexism and an exploration of the difference between second and third wave feminist analysis. Each chapter presents examples from research conducted in different cultural and linguistic contexts which allows students to observe practical applications of all current theories and approaches. Throughout oral and written language data, from a wealth of different contexts, settings and sources, is thoroughly analysed. The book concludes with a discussion of how the field could advance and a overview of the various research methods, pertinent for future work in language and gender study.Language, Gender and Feminism is an invaluable text for students new to the discipline of Language and Gender studies within English Language, Linguistics, Communication Studies and Women’s Studies, as well as being an up-to-date resource for more established researchers and scholars.

Ways of Reading is a best-selling textbook for undergraduate students of English Language and English Literature, providing readers with the tools to analyse and interpret the meanings of literary and non-literary texts. Six sections, comprising twenty five self-contained units, cover: techniques of analysis and problem-solving language variation attributing meaning poetic uses of language narrative drama and performance texts The book combines the linguistic and literary background to each topic with discussion of examples from books, poems, magazines and online sources, and links those examples to follow-up practical activities and a list of titles for further reading. This fourth edition has been redesigned and updated throughout, with many fresh examples and exercises. Further reading suggestions have been brought up to date and new material on electronic sources and the Internet has been integrated. Ways of Reading continues to be the core resource for students of English Language and Literature.

Ways of Reading is a best-selling textbook for undergraduate students of English Language and English Literature, providing readers with the tools to analyse and interpret the meanings of literary and non-literary texts. Six sections, comprising twenty five self-contained units, cover: techniques of analysis and problem-solving language variation attributing meaning poetic uses of language narrative drama and performance texts The book combines the linguistic and literary background to each topic with discussion of examples from books, poems, magazines and online sources, and links those examples to follow-up practical activities and a list of titles for further reading. This fourth edition has been redesigned and updated throughout, with many fresh examples and exercises. Further reading suggestions have been brought up to date and new material on electronic sources and the Internet has been integrated. Ways of Reading continues to be the core resource for students of English Language and Literature.

The issue of sexist language has been hotly debated within feminist circles since the 1960s. Previous books have tended to regard sexism in language as easy to identify and have suggested solutions to overcome and counter sexism. Sara Mills takes a fresh and more critical look at sexism in language, and argues that even in feminist circles it has become a problematic concept. Drawing on conversational and textual data collected over the last ten years, and with reference to recent research carried out in a range of different academic disciplines, Mills suggests that there are two forms of sexism - overt and indirect. Overt sexism is clear and unambiguous, while indirect sexism is based on pragmatics and the meaning and interpretation of utterances. Indirect sexism is extremely common and we therefore need new ways to challenge and analyse its usage in language.

Gender and Politeness challenges the notion that women are necessarily always more polite than men as much of the language and gender literature claims. Sara Mills discusses the complex relations between gender and politeness and argues that although there are circumstances when women speakers, drawing on stereotypes of femininity to guide their behaviour, will appear to be acting in a more polite way than men, there are many circumstances where women will act just as impolitely as men. The book aims to show that politeness and impoliteness are in essence judgements about another's interventions in an interaction and about that person as whole, and are not simple classifications of particular types of speech. Drawing on the notion of community of practice Mills examines the way that speakers negotiate with what they perceive to be gendered stereotypes circulating within their particular group.

The issue of sexist language has been hotly debated within feminist circles since the 1960s. Previous books have tended to regard sexism in language as easy to identify and have suggested solutions to overcome and counter sexism. Sara Mills takes a fresh and more critical look at sexism in language, and argues that even in feminist circles it has become a problematic concept. Drawing on conversational and textual data collected over the last ten years, and with reference to recent research carried out in a range of different academic disciplines, Mills suggests that there are two forms of sexism - overt and indirect. Overt sexism is clear and unambiguous, while indirect sexism is based on pragmatics and the meaning and interpretation of utterances. Indirect sexism is extremely common and we therefore need new ways to challenge and analyse its usage in language.

This anthology aims to challenge stereotypes of women travellers. Rather than simply presenting writings by Victorian women who travelled bravely around the world disregarding social convention and danger, the editors present a range of writing and possible ways of being a woman traveller. As well as the ‘eccentric’ woman traveller, the editors have included writings by those who might be seen as failed travellers, cautious and conventional travellers and those who did not conform to the adventurous heroine stereotype. Because travelling as a woman and writing as a woman presents the author with a number of textual problems which must be negotiated, Foster and Mills have chosen to include writings which confronted these problems and which resolved them (or did not resolve them) in different ways.These textual problems include the depiction of other women, the representation of spatial relations, the negotiations undertaken in relation to the adventure heroine narrative and character and the position taken by the author in relation to the representation of knowledge. These issues are all crucial in relation to travel writing by women , and the women, whose writing has been collected together in this anthology have made bold decisions in relation to them.

Gender and colonial space is a trenchant analysis of the complex relation between social relations – including notions of class, nationality and gender – and spatial relations, landscape, architecture and topography – in post-colonial contexts.Arguing against much of the psychoanalytic focus of much current post-colonial theory, Mills aims to set out in a new direction, drawing on a wide range of literary and non-literary texts to develop a more materialist approach. She foregrounds gender in this field where it has often been marginalised by the critical orthodoxies, demonstrating its importance not only in spatial theorising in general, but in the post-colonial theorising of space in particular.Concentrating on the period of ‘high’ British colonialism at the close of the nineteenth century, she adroitly examines a range of contexts, looking at a range of colonial contexts such as India, Africa, America, Canada, Australia and Britain, illustrating how relations must be analysed for the way in which different colonial contexts define and constitute each other.

The influential readings collected for this volume reflect not just the textual and discursive nature of colonial and postcolonial discourse in relation to gender, but also the material effects of the postcolonial condition and practices developed in relation to it. The volume seeks to open up the field by juxtaposing a number of contested subjects. Readings cover a range of geographical regions including: South-east Asia, India, Africa, Latin America, Canada, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Australia and Ireland. Key topics include: colonialism and anti-colonialism, ‘otherness’, sexuality, sexual rights, the harem and the veil, space and writing, and aboriginal and indigenous women’s issues. Not only does this anthology address the lack of attention to gender and feminism in early studies of colonial discourse, it also provides resources for readers to trace the developments in feminism as it responds to postcolonial critiques of First World feminism.

We use politeness every day when interacting with other people. Yet politeness is an impressively complex linguistic process, and studying it can tell us a lot about the social and cultural values of social groups or even a whole society, helping us to understand how humans 'encode' states of mind in their words. The traditional, stereotypical view is that people in East Asian cultures are indirect, deferential and extremely polite - sometimes more polite than seems necessary. This revealing book takes a fresh look at the phenomenon, showing that the situation is far more complex than these stereotypes would suggest. Taking examples from Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean Chinese, it shows how politeness differs across countries, but also across social groups and subgroups. This book is essential reading for those interested in intercultural communication, linguistics and East Asian languages.

Politeness plays a vital role in maintaining class differences. In this highly original account, Sara Mills analyses the interrelationship between class and linguistic interaction, uncovering the linguistic ideologies behind politeness in British English. She sheds light on the way politeness and rudeness interrelate with the marking of class boundaries, and reveals how middle-class positions in society are marked by people's use of self-deprecation, indirectness and reserve. Systematically challenging received wisdom about cross-cultural and inter-cultural differences, she goes beyond the mere context of the interaction to investigate the social dimension of politeness. This approach enables readers to analyse other languages in the same way, and a range of case studies illustrate how ideologies of politeness are employed and judged.

Politeness plays a vital role in maintaining class differences. In this highly original account, Sara Mills analyses the interrelationship between class and linguistic interaction, uncovering the linguistic ideologies behind politeness in British English. She sheds light on the way politeness and rudeness interrelate with the marking of class boundaries, and reveals how middle-class positions in society are marked by people's use of self-deprecation, indirectness and reserve. Systematically challenging received wisdom about cross-cultural and inter-cultural differences, she goes beyond the mere context of the interaction to investigate the social dimension of politeness. This approach enables readers to analyse other languages in the same way, and a range of case studies illustrate how ideologies of politeness are employed and judged.

This book analyses the complex relationship between directness, indirectness, politeness and impoliteness. Definitions of directness and indirectness are discussed and problematised from a discursive theoretical perspective.

This lively and accessible book is the first sustained account of feminist stylistics. Mills explores such issues as sexism, political correctness, reader positioning and meaning, opening up the study of style to feminist inquiry.

This volume examines important themes in the theoretical debates on the relationship of language and gender. It analyses this relationship across a range of different disciplinary perspectives from linguistics, literary theory, cultural studies and visual analysis. The focus of the book goes beyond an analysis of women's language to discuss the complexities of gendered language with chapters on lesbian poetics, the language of girls and boys and the relationship between gender and genre.

Representations of gender in learning materials convey an implicit message to students about attitudes towards culturally appropriate gender roles for women and men. This collection takes a linguistic approach to exploring theories about gender representation within the sphere of education and textbooks, and their effects on readers and students within an international context.In the opening section, contributors discuss theories of representation and effect, challenging the conventional Althusserian model of interpellation, and acknowledging the challenges of applying Western feminist models within an international context. Following chapters provide detailed analyses focusing on a number of different countries: Australia, Japan, Brazil, Finland, Russia, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Germany, Qatar, Tanzania, and Poland. Through linguistic analysis of vocabulary associated with women and men, content analysis of what women and men say in textbooks, and discourse analysis of the types of linguistic moves associated with women and men, contributors evaluate the extent to which gendered representations in textbooks perpetuate stereotypical gender roles, what the impact may be on learners, and the ways that both teachers and learners interact and engage with these texts.

Representations of gender in learning materials convey an implicit message to students about attitudes towards culturally appropriate gender roles for women and men. This collection takes a linguistic approach to exploring theories about gender representation within the sphere of education and textbooks, and their effects on readers and students within an international context.In the opening section, contributors discuss theories of representation and effect, challenging the conventional Althusserian model of interpellation, and acknowledging the challenges of applying Western feminist models within an international context. Following chapters provide detailed analyses focusing on a number of different countries: Australia, Japan, Brazil, Finland, Russia, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Germany, Qatar, Tanzania, and Poland. Through linguistic analysis of vocabulary associated with women and men, content analysis of what women and men say in textbooks, and discourse analysis of the types of linguistic moves associated with women and men, contributors evaluate the extent to which gendered representations in textbooks perpetuate stereotypical gender roles, what the impact may be on learners, and the ways that both teachers and learners interact and engage with these texts.