Her Story and His: A Dynamic Journey Through British Literary Evolution

Abstract

This study examined the lexico-grammatical patterns in British literature authored by men and women across four distinct historical periods: the Romantic era, the Post-Romantic and Victorian era, the early 20th century, and the 21st century. Biber’s Multidimensional (MD) analysis has been employed in the present study to identify the linguistic features that characterise four periods. The analysis of the 200 text documents reveals many significant gender differences related to culture and historical expectations. These features are most distinctively exposed in post-Romanticism and Victorian periods; women writers emphasize the narrative discourse. On the other hand, male writers use informative discourse and direct language. These differences have been reduced in the 21st century, pointing to a change of literary context in the form of a change of gender roles and comparability of narratives. By presenting data and arguments to this research question, this study provides important findings to the discourses on gender and literature. The analysed material reveals male and female writers’ contributions to the formation of literature and its evolution.MD provides a novel approach to considering gender differences in written communication with a focus on gender, written communication technologies, and history.