Exploring the role of the postmodern feminist voice in the development of the school language text

Commencing with an abbreviated herstorical review of the various strands that comprise feminism's rich tapestry, this study proceeds with an enquiry into the postmodern feminist challenge against patriarchal ideological extravagances that have valorized Enlightenment significations of knowledge. Building on the postmodern feminist insight, that the discourses that constitute women as deficit Other permeate every aspect of the social configuration, language as a social and cultural construct is examined with a view to ascertaining the extent to which it has aided and abetted in the definition, deprecation and exclusion of women and our realities in a male supremacist society. In surveying the sexual/textual pedagogic terrain, the study proceeds from the premise that texts as cultural artifacts are crucial in the transmission of cultural attitudes, values, and the construction of gendered identities. Exploring the Communication, Literacy and Language component of the Outcomes-Based Learning document, and the interim core English second language syllabus, currently at the centre of educational debate, the study attempts to show that despite the documents' rhetoric to promote gender sensitivity and inclusivity, their allegiance to androcentric multilingual and multicultural concerns entrench phallogocentric binarism, thus making them complicit in furthering patriarchal ideology. The study concludes with a few recommendations for further research in the area of feminist pedagogy.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Languages and Literatures

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Perumal, Juliet Christine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Esterhuyse, Jan

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14756

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14756