HomeTilamsikvol. 8 no. 1 (2015)

Affective Stylistic Analysis of E.L. James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey”

Shiela M. Manzanilla

 

Abstract:

The language of literature is one of the important catalysts of society’s perceptions on gender issues. In fact, gender equality issues in numerous literary pieces affected notions on relationships. This study analyzed the trilogy of the novel Fifty Shades of Grey to divulge its complexities as a gender discourse. The novel, being dubbed as sexually explicit, is rich of symbols and linguistic strategies in the texts, centering on lust and submission. The novels (i.e.-the trilogy) were subjected to affective stylistic analysis using the principles of sociolinguistics. Results show that Fish’s Affective Stylistics Approach (1980) reveals how the author used words and chose their syntactic order to uncover how such choices (or “manipulations”) in language may have shaped the novels as gender discourse in the minds of her readers. The author’s choice of using the first person point of view, the stream of consciousness, historical present verb tense, and vivid descriptive terms as her general style profoundly constructed the novels as a gender discourse whose evidences can be seen through sociolinguistic analysis of significant extracts.