Author Description

Talking Young Femininities explores the spontaneous talk of adolescent British girls from different socio-cultural backgrounds, including girls from a prestigious private school, the British Bangladeshi community and the East End in London. The book examines different discursive practices and identities which the young women negotiate in their talk and examines the interactive processes of these negotiations. What do young British women talk about with their friends? How do gender and (adolescent) identity interact with social class and ethnicity? How do adolescent girls position themselves in relation to sexual experiences, practices and identities? What is the relationship between the girls' local positions and larger-scale socio-cultural norms or identity categories? In what way can linguistic discourse analysis build on and contribute to cross-disciplinary research on gender and adolescent identity? These questions are explored on the basis of the girls' conversations about friends, friendships, boys, parents, music, drugs, school, sex, (arranged) marriage and social class.