Interpretation of Gender in a Malaysian Novel: The Case of Salina

Abstract

Most written products that are considered creative, particularly in terms of plots, contexts and characters are created based on the writers' observations of the reality of their surroundings. It has been observed that members of most cultures and societies have certain perceptions or stereotype views of the behaviour of men and women regarding styles in dressing, activities, career and social roles in society. Writers rely on these usually stereotyped and generalized observations and portray these traits in their writing especially in their characters in order to make their written products believable, real and effective. This study sets out to analyse the stereotyped characteristics of male and female speech styles as portrayed in a Malaysian novel, Salina, written by A. Samad Ismail. It also examines the effect of gender differences depicted in the novel. The linguistic features that are examined for the analysis are the use of super polite forms and hedges. The analysis focuses on the use of these features by the characters in the novel. The findings of the study suggest that there are gender differences in the use of these features and are uniquely Malaysian in nature.