"A Feministic Stylistic Analysis of Selected Short Stories by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera" (original) (raw)

This research employed the feminist stylistic framework of Sara Mills in determining the difference between Kerima Polotan-Tuvera’s women and men characters in her four Palanca Award-winning first-prize short stories, namely, “The Virgin” (1952), “The Trap” (1956), “The Tourists” (1959), and “The Sounds of Sunday” (1960). The focused reading of the texts inevitably led to the identification of the author’s distinct writing style/practice as a fictionist. The selected short stories were analyzed using the model provided by Sara Mills, which aims to investigate texts at the level of word, phrase/sentence, and discourse. The research identified dominant and recurring features in the four stories. Women characters differ from the men in that there are more descriptions given to them which pertain to their thoughts, emotions, experiences, vulnerability towards men, and their physical characteristics. Men are described according to their physical strength, personalities, attitudes, which dominate women. Overall, the research shows that at all levels of analysis, the stories consistently foreground the female consciousness and experience. At the same time, the stories also magnify the pervading dominance of men over women in many circumstances. In these stories, the woman’s greatest dilemma always concerns her relationship with men, as if the woman’s worst weakness is her very own attraction and helplessness towards them. These recurring features reveal the distinct writing style/practice of the author. Finally, the study reveals that sexism and gender stereotyping are found in the stories, characteristic of the writing of a female author expressing herself as a woman living in a male-dominated society.