English mystique?
A critical discourse analysis on gendered bilingualism in Japan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v10i1.20692Keywords:
Bilingualism in Japan, Gender, Critical Discourse Analysis, Akogare, SubversionAbstract
Bilingualism in Japan is imagined and constructed in close relation to gender. While erotic Occidentalism - namely, Japanese women’s idolization, or akogare, toward English, the West, and Caucasian men - has often been focused on, this critical discourse analysis aims to shed light on the more complex dynamics entailed in this issue. An analysis of popular publications reveals, on the one hand, a shared plot in which both celebrity and non-celebrity Japanese women experience dramatic alteration through learning English. On the other hand, the magazines are multifaceted and filled with mixed, conflicting messages. Some Japanese women featured in the media expose disillusioning realities of the supposedly romantic English world – some mockingly and others inadvertently. By showing that the gendered bilingualism in Japan involves not only Occidentalist/sexist affects but also alternative and subversive voices, this analysis illuminates the multiple subject positions available to female English learners in Japan.
References
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Randell-Haruta, Y. (1995) Eigo no Shigoto de Kagayakitai [Wishing to Shine with an English Job]. Tokyo: Diamond.
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Seargeant, P. (2009) The Idea of English in Japan: Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Sekino, T. (2007) Bamenbetsu Bijinesuman no tameno Eigo Hy?gensh? [Useful English Expressions for Business Scenes]. Tokyo: Beret.
Shinoda, A. and Shinzaki, R. (1992) Eigo wa Onnna o Kaeru [English Changes Women]. Tokyo: Hamano Shuppan.
Skov, L. and Moeran, B. (1995) Hiding in the light: From Oshin to Yoshimoto Banana. In L. Skov and B. Moeran (eds) Women, Media and Consumption in Japan 1–74. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Takahashi, K. (2013) Language Learning, Gender and Desire: Japanese Women on the Move. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Van Zoonen, L. (1991) Feminist perspectives on the media. In J. Curran and M. Gurevitch (eds) Mass Media and Society 33–54. London: Edward Arnold.
Weatherall, A. (2002) Gender, Language and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Yasui, K. (2008) Onna wa Eigo de Yomigaeru [Women Revive with English]. Tokyo: Alc.
Atkinson, D. (ed.) (2011) Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition. Abingdon: Routledge.
Bailey, K. (2006) Marketing the eikaiwa wonderland: ideology akogare and gender alterity in English conversation school advertising in Japan. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24(1): 105–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/d418
Block, D. (2003) The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Burr, V. (1995) An Introduction to Social Constructionism. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203299968
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
Butler, J. (1997) Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. London: Routledge.
Creighton, M. (1995) Imagining the Other in Japanese advertising campaigns. In J. Carrier (ed.) Occidentalism: Images of the West 135–60. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Davies, B. and Harré , R. (1990) Positioning: the discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20(1): 43–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00174.x
Diggs, N. B. (1998) Steel Butterflies: Japanese Women and the American Experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Felman, S. (2002) The Scandal of the Speaking Body: Don Juan with J. L. Austin, or Seduction in Two Languages. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hall, S. (1980) Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe and P. Willis (eds) Culture, Media and Language 128–38. London: Routledge.
Hollows, J. (2000) Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Iwao, S. (1993) The Japanese Woman: Traditional Image and Changing Reality. New York: Free Press.
Kelsky, K. (2001) Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9780822383277
Kelsky, K. (2008) Gender, modernity, and eroticized internationalism in Japan. In D. B. Willis and S. Murphy-Shigematsu (eds) Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race Gender and Identity 86–109. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kitamura, A. (2010) Venturing through/into language and power: Japanese women and English as capital. In J. L Watzke, P. Chamness Miller and M. Mantero (eds) Readings in Language Studies Volume 2: Language and Power 273–88. Lakewood Ranch, FL: International Society for Language Studies.
Kitamura, A. (2012) Eigo wa onnna o sukuunoka [Is English a Saviour for Women?]. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo.
Kobayashi, Y. (2002) The role of gender in foreign learning attitudes: Japanese female students’ attitudes towards English learning. Gender and Education 14 (2): 181–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540250220133021
Kobayashi, Y. (2007) Japanese working women and English study abroad. World Englishes 26 (1): 62–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2007.00488.x
Kubota, R. (2002) The impact of globalization on language teaching in Japan. In D. Block and D. Cameron (eds) Globalization and Language Teaching 13–28. London: Routledge.
Kubota, R. (2011) Learning a foreign language as leisure and consumption: enjoyment, desire, and the business of eikaiwa. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14 (4): 473–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2011.573069
Lazar, M. M. (2005) Politicizing gender in discourse: feminist critical discourse analysis as political perspective and praxis. In M. M. Lazar (ed.) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse 1–28. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ma, K. (1996) The Modern Madame Butterfly. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle.
Norton, B. (2000) Identity and Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity and Educational Change. London: Longman/Pearson Education.
Pavlenko, A. (ed.) (2006) Bilingual Minds: Emotional Experience, Expression and Representation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Pavlenko, A., Blackledge, A., Piller, I. and Teutsch Dwyer, M. (eds) (2001) Multilingualism, Second Language Learning, and Gender. Berlin: Mounton De Gruyter. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110889406
Piller, I. and Takahashi, K. (2006) A passion for English: desire and the language market. In A. Pavlenko (ed.) Bilingual Minds: Emotional Experience, Expression and Representation 59–83. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Randell-Haruta, Y. (1995) Eigo no Shigoto de Kagayakitai [Wishing to Shine with an English Job]. Tokyo: Diamond.
Rosenberger, N. (1995) Antiphonal performances? Japanese women’s magazines and women’s voices. In L. Skov and B. Moeran (eds) Women, Media and Consumption in Japan 143–69. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Seargeant, P. (2009) The Idea of English in Japan: Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Sekino, T. (2007) Bamenbetsu Bijinesuman no tameno Eigo Hy?gensh? [Useful English Expressions for Business Scenes]. Tokyo: Beret.
Shinoda, A. and Shinzaki, R. (1992) Eigo wa Onnna o Kaeru [English Changes Women]. Tokyo: Hamano Shuppan.
Skov, L. and Moeran, B. (1995) Hiding in the light: From Oshin to Yoshimoto Banana. In L. Skov and B. Moeran (eds) Women, Media and Consumption in Japan 1–74. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Takahashi, K. (2013) Language Learning, Gender and Desire: Japanese Women on the Move. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Van Zoonen, L. (1991) Feminist perspectives on the media. In J. Curran and M. Gurevitch (eds) Mass Media and Society 33–54. London: Edward Arnold.
Weatherall, A. (2002) Gender, Language and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Yasui, K. (2008) Onna wa Eigo de Yomigaeru [Women Revive with English]. Tokyo: Alc.
Published
2016-03-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Kitamura, A. (2016). English mystique? A critical discourse analysis on gendered bilingualism in Japan. Gender and Language, 10(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v10i1.20692
