Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation
Richard Watts and Peter Trudgill (eds), Alternative Histories of English
Shana Poplack (ed.), The English History of African American English
Urszula Clark, War Words: Language, History and the Disciplining of English
Beverley A. Lewin, Jonathan Fine and Lynne Young, Expository Discourse: A Genre–based Approach to Social Science Research Texts
Alexandra Georgakopoulou and Marianna Spanaki (eds.), A Reader in Greek Sociolinguistics – Studies in Modern Greek Language, Culture and Communication
Maya Khemlani David, The Sindhis of Malaysia: A Sociolinguistic Study
Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication     

Questioning the Phallus: Jacques Lacan and Judith Butler

ABSTRACT

This article engages with the relationship between Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and poststructuralist gender theory by comparing and contrasting the questioning of the symbolic phallus (function) undertaken by Jacques Lacan and Judith Butler. The debate takes place through Lacan’s 1958 paper “The Signification of the Phallus,” to which Butler responded critically in Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter, published in 1990 and 1993, respectively. Lacan explains that the symbolic phallic function is the “anchor”’ from and around which the symbolic works and ties the discussion to the question of sexual difference by explaining that men and women are positioned differently in relation to it. Butler charges that Lacan’s schema is heteronormative—because it is limited to the male/female schema—and patriarchal because within that heteronormative framework it affirms the masculine perspective. Rather than follow the usual route taken by recent Lacanian scholarship on this issue and focus on Lacan’s later works, especially Seminar XX on female sexuality, I appeal to the contents of two works written in the same year (1958) as “The Signification of the Phallus”—Seminar V and “Guiding Remarks for a Convention on Female Sexuality”—to offer a qualified defense of Lacan that accepts that his early framework is heteronormative but questions the patriarchal charge by showing that within these pre-Seminar XX texts he explicitly works to undermine that logic.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Thomas A. Sebeok, Global Semiotics
Ceil Lucas (ed.), The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages
Alison Wray, Formulaic Language and the Lexicon
Chris Barker and Dariusz Galasinski, Cultural Studies and Discourse Analysis. A Dialogue on Language and Identity
Stanton Wortham, Narratives in Action: A Strategy for Research and Analysis
Carmen Silva–Corvalán, Sociolingüística y pragmática del español
M. Teresa Turell (ed.), Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups
Dennis Ager, Motivation in Language Planning and Language Policy.
Aled Jones and Bill Jones, Welsh Reflections: Y Drych and America 1851–2001
Alexandra Georgakopoulou and Marianna Spanaki (eds.), A Reader in Greek Sociolinguistics—Studies in Modern Greek Language, Culture and Communication     

Motherless Subjects and Mothered Selves: The Implications of Jacques Lacan’s and Donald Winnicott’s Writings on the Formation of the ‘I’ for American Studies

ABSTRACT

This article contrasts the theories of ego formation put forward in Jacques Lacan’s ‘The Mirror Stage’ and Donald Winnicott’s ‘The Mirror Role of the Mother,’ and discusses their methodological implications for the field of American studies. While Lacan theorises subjectivity as irreparably split and (self-)alienated, Winnicott offers an optimistic version of a self which is sustained in its going-on-being by a nourishing maternal presence. These disparate conceptualisations of the human being produce two powerful frames through which to approach culture. Yet, while Lacan is widely recognised in the American studies scholarship, Winnicott remains virtually unknown. This article aims to enhance the visibility of the British author by outlining the productivity of his ideas for any cultural or literary analysis. By stressing the foundational significance of the primary bond Winnicott’s theory intervenes in the recent critiques of neoliberal capitalism which remain halted in a Lacanian-like melancholic mode, masked by a cultural command of perpetual enjoyment. The Winnicottian perspective challenges Lacan’s fixation on the unattainable objects of desire, reiterated by the neoliberal myth of self-perfection through consumption, and offers an alternative pattern of human sociality, based on relational, self-reflexive moderation.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Susan Ehrlich, Representing Rape: Language and Sexual Consent
Deborah Cameron, Working with Spoken Discourse
Stefan Titscher, Michael Meyer, Ruth Wodak and Eva Vetter, Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis
Linda A. Wood and Rolf O. Kroger, Doing Discourse Analysis: Methods for Studying Action in Talk and Text
Srikant Sarangi and Celia Roberts (eds.), Talk, Work and Institutional Order: Discourse in Medical, Mediation and Management Settings
Ulrich Ammon (ed.), The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other Languages and Language Communities
Alexandra Jaffe, Ideologies in Action: Language Politics on Corsica
Niloofar Haeri, The Sociolinguistic Market of Cairo: Gender, Class and Education
Anita Y. K. Poon, Medium of Instruction in Hong Kong: Policy and Practice
Tariq Rahman, Language, Education and Culture
Dariusz Galasinski, The Language of Deception: A Discourse Analytical Study
Clifford Hill and Eric Larsen, Children and Reading Tests
Fern L. Johnson, Speaking Culturally: Language Diversity in the United States
Lucy Burke, Tony Crowley and Alan Girvin (eds.), The Routledge Language and Cultural Theory Reader     

Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus

Book reviewed in this article: James S. Frideres (ed.), A World of Communities: Participative Research Perspectives. Roderic Beaujot, Population change in Canada. The challenges of policy adaptation. With a foreword by Monica Boyd. Sing C. Chew, Logs for Capital: The Timber Industry and Capitalist Enterprise in the Nineteenth Century. Robert Silverman and Leslie Kennedy, Deadly Deeds: Murder in Canada. C. David Naylor (ed.), Canadian Health Care and the State. A Century of Evolution. Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991, pp. 256, paper AND The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Elliot Leyton, William O'Grady and James Overton, Violence and Public Anxiety: A Canadian Case. Stanley N. Kurtz, All the Mothers are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis. Marilyn Silverman and P.H. Gulliver (eds.), Approaching the Past: Historical Anthropology Through Irish Case Studies. Don Kulick, Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self, and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinean Village. Olga F. Linares, Power, Prayer and Production: The Jola of Casamance, Senegal. Terry Garvin, Bush Land People. Edited by Michael Robinson. Joan Smith and Immanuel Wallerstein (co-ordinators), Creating and Transforming Households: The Constraints of the World-economy. Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories. James L. Giblin, The Politics of Environmental Control in Northeastern Tanzania, 1840–1940. Bob Russell, Back to Work? Labour, State and Industrial Relations in Canada. Robert J. Brym, William Shaffir and Morton Weinfeld (eds.), The Jews in Canada. Nico Stehr and Richard V. Ericson (eds.), The Culture of Power and Known edge: Inquiries into Contemporary Societies.     

Cot de la réglementation du travail et lacunes de l'indicateur «Doing Business>>: l'exemple de l'Afrique du Sud

L'indicateur «Embauche des travailleurs>> de la base de donnée de la Banque mondiale «Doing Business>>, enquěte de 2006, a présenté des résultats mitigés sur le contenu et la portée de la réglementation du travail en Afrique du Sud. Les auteurs indiquent que ces mesures – avec leur vision étroite de la législation – ne fournissent qu'une image incomplète de la réglementation du travail. Ils proposent et étudient trois extensions possibles à la structure de «Doing Business>>, notamment: la «microlégislation>>, les institutions du marché du travail et l'interprétation jurisprudentielle. Ils concluent par un plaidoyer pour leur prise en compte dans l'évaluation du cadre réglementaire du travail.     

Book Reviews/Comptes rendus

NANCIELLEN DAVIS, Ethnicity and Ethnic Group Persistence in an Acadian Village in Maritime Canada
BERYL L. BELLMAN, The Language of Secrecy: Symbols and Metaphors in Poro Ritual
STANLEY R. BARRETT, The Rebirth of Anthropological Theory. Toronto
DONNA WILSON (ed.), Democratic Socialism: The Challenge of the Eighties and Beyond. Vancouver
J. TORRANCE, Public Violence in Canada. Kingston and Montreal
WALLACE CLEMENT, The Struggle to Organize: Resistance in Canada's Fisheries     

Deconstructing 'Feminist Linguistics'

Victoria L. Bergvall, Janet M. Bing and Alice F. Freed (eds.). Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice .
Jennifer Coates. Women Talk: Conversation between Women Friends .
Mary Crawford. Talking Difference: On Gender and Language .
Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds.). Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self .
Sally Johnson and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (eds.). Language and Masculinity .     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Barbara A. Fennell, A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach
Kevin McCafferty, Ethnicity and Language Change: English in (London)Derry, Northern Ireland
Pieter Muysken, Bilingual Speech: A Typology of Code-Mixing.
Ulrich Ammon (ed.), The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other Languages and Language Communities
Andrew Goatly, Critical Reading and Writing. An Introductory Coursebook
Ana Roca (ed.), Research on Spanish in the United States. Linguistic Issues and Challenges
Ishtla Singh, Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction     

Language endangerment and language revival

Books reviewed in this article:
David Crystal, Language Death
Leanne Hinton and Ken Hale (eds.), The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice
Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine, Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed
Auer, P. (ed.) Code-Switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and Identity
Malone, Martin J. Worlds of Talk: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Conversation
Diamond, Julie. Status and Power in Verbal Interaction: A Study of Discourse in a Close-Knit Social Network
Roca, Ana and Jensen, John B. (eds.). Spanish in Contact: Issues in Bilingualism
Shaul, David L. and Furbee, N. Louanna. Language and Culture
Kotthoff, Helga and Wodak, Ruth (eds.). Communicating Gender in Context
Wodak, Ruth (ed.). Gender and Discourse
Cheshire, Jenny and Stein, Dieter (eds.). Taming the Vernacular: From Dialect to Written Standard Language     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Thomas H. Slone . Rasta Is Cuss: A Dictionary of Rastafarian Cursing Thomas H. Slone . Prokem: An Analysis of a Jakartan Slang Alex Argenti ‐Pillen . Masking Terror: How Women Contain Violence in Southern Sri Lanka Lynn Thiesmeyer (ed.). Discourse and Silencing: Representation and the Language of Displacement Paul Chilton . Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice Catherine Wallace . Critical Reading in Language Education Richard J. Watts . Politeness Janet Holmes and Maria Stubbe . Power and Politeness in the Workplace Pol Cuvelier , Theo du Plessis and Lut Teck (eds.). Multilingualism, Education and Social Integration: Belgium, Europe, South Africa, Southern Africa Roger M. Thompson . Filipino English and Taglish: Language Switching from Multiple Perspectives Anya Woods . Medium or Message? Language and Faith in Ethnic Churches Jacques Maurais and Michael A. Morris (eds.). Languages in a Globalising World     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Janina Brutt-Griffler, World English: A Study of its Development
Sarah Grey Thomason, Language Contact: An Introduction
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Language Contact in Amazonia
Janet L. Nicol (ed.), One Mind, Two Languages: Bilingual Language Processing
Eve Gregory and Ann Williams, City Literacies: Learning to Read across Generations and Cultures     

"Choice" in Filial Care Work: Moving beyond a Dichotomy

Les auteures analysent le concept du «choix>> dans le travail des aidants naturels filiaux. Dans la documentation théorique et empirique sur le travail des aidants naturels, une dichotomie entre le «choix>> et l'«obligation>> est considérée comme une construction sociale. Néanmoins, cette dichotomie ne reflète pas adéquatement les expériences familiales de fourniture de soins; par exemple, le choix et l'obligation ne constituent pas des motivations mutuellement exclusives. Ils sont plutôt «relationnels>>, «contextuels>> et manifestes dans l'interaction entre des macro et des microcontextes. La dichotomie choix-obligation est également idéologique. Sur le plan de la politique morale, elle fait la promotion du déchargement de la responsabilité des gouvernements sur les familles, elle obscurcit la complexité des relations filiales et peut même promouvoir l'ambivalence psychologique.
In this paper, we discuss the concept of "choice" in filial care work. A dichotomy between choice and obligation is constructed in theoretical and empirical literature on filial care work. However, this dichotomy does not adequately reflect family caregiving experiences; for instance, choice and obligation are not mutually exclusive motivations. Rather, choice and obligation are "relational" and "contextual" and manifest in the interaction between macro- and micro-contexts. The choice-obligation dichotomy is also ideological. At the moral-political level, it promotes the downloading of responsibility by governments to family, obscures the complexity of filial relationships, and may even promote psychological ambivalence.     

The study of language variation and change: Changes in progress?

Book reviewed in this article:
J. K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill and Natalie Schilling–Estes (eds.), The Handbook of Language Variation and Change     

REPLY

In the reply to his critics and interlocutors, Laclau clarifies his position regarding a series of concepts such as representation, fraternity (or democratic solidarity), identification, signification, affect, extimacy, spectacle and social sedimentation as they arise in or pertain to his theory of ‘populism and populist reason’. In the process of those clarifications, Laclau also explains how his views differ from other relevant thinkers such as Hannah Pitkin (on ‘representation’), Jurgen Habermas (on ‘new social movements’), Guy Debord (on ‘spectacle’) and Jacques Lacan (on ‘extimacy’).     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
James Good and Irving Velody (eds), The Politics of Postmodernity
Richard Kilminster, The Sociological Revolution. From the Enlightenment to the Global Age
Stephen Howe, Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes
Kevin Hetherington, Expressions of Identity: Space, Performance, Politics
Judy Wajcman, Managing like a Man: Women and Men in Corporate Management
Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem at Large: What You Should Know About Technology
Ian Hutchby and Robin Wooffitt, Conversation Analysis: Principles, Practices and Applications
David Silverman, Harvey Sacks: Social Science and Conversation Analysis
Jose Alvarado and John Creedy, Population Aging, Migration and Social Expenditure
Maria R. Lowe, Women of Steel: Female Bodybuilders and the Struggle for Self Definition
Anthony Elliot (ed.), Freud 2000
Zygmunt Bauman, Globalization: the Human Consequences     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe (eds.)., Identities in Talk Tove Skutnab‐Kangas, Linguistic Genocide in Education–or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? Marnie Holborow, The Politics of English: A Marxist View of Language Clare Mar‐Molinero, The Spanish Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe (eds.), Global Literacies and the World‐Wide‐Web Justine Coupland (ed.), Small Talk Francesca Bargiela‐Chiappini and Catherine Nickerson (eds.)., Writing Business: Genres, Media and Discourses Geoffrey Lewis, The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success Kenneth J. Gergen, An Invitation to Social Construction James Milroy and Lesley Milroy, Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English Linda Thomas and Sha¨n Wareing, Language, Society and Power: An Introduction     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
A Critical Dictionary of Sociology R. Boudon and F Bourricaud (translated by Peter Hamilton)
A Treatise on Social Theory. Volume II: Substantive Social Theory W.G. Runciman
Mind in Action Jeff Coulter
Max Weber and Thomas Mann: Calling and the Shaping of the Self Harvey Goldman
Éamile Durkheim and the Reformation of Sociology Stjepan G. Mestrović
Politics and Class Analysis , B. Hindess
Choice, Rationality and Social Theory , B. Hindess
Social Anthropology and the Politics of Language , Ralph Grillo (ed.)
The Pluralist Theory of the State: Selected Writings of G. D.H. Cole . J.N. Eiggis and HJ. Laski Paul O. Hirst (ed.)
Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism , Roy Medvedev
Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory Nancy J. Chodorow
The Woman in the Body. A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction , Emily Martin
Rediscovering Masculinity: Reason. Language and Sexuality , Victor J. Seidler
Growing Old in the Twentieth Century , Margot Jefferys (ed.)
Nursing the Dying , David Field
Doctoring the Media: the Reporting of Health and Medicine , Anne Karpf
Social Order/Mental Disorder: Anglo-American Psychiatry in Historical Perspective , Andrew Scull
Sport in Britain: A Social History Tony Mason (ed.)
Family Art , Philip Pacey
'Highbrow/Lowbrow': The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America , Lawrence W Levine.