Gender Study In Andersen’s Fairy Tales From The Perspective Of Critical Discourse Analysis

Andersen’s fairy tales, as popular classics, play an important role in the process ofsocialization and development of children. Published in the19th century, Andersen’s fairytales, containing a wealth of philosophy of life, are of benefit to children to establish thevalue of the true, the good, and the beautiful. However, the underlying male-dominatedgender view in Andersen’s fairy tales also affects children in their reading. It is found thatresearches on gender study in fairy tales from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) are stilla little, after reviewing the studies on CDA, gender and fairy tales from three angles. Thisthesis is an attempt to conduct a research analysis of literary discourse using CDA, willingto provide a new and deep critical perspective to understand gender study in fairy tales.Meanwhile, Andersen’s fairy tales are expected to be viewed and appreciated from adialectic perspective, to keep readers especially adolescents from forming false values intheir reading. This thesis makes a research on the gender study in Andersen’s fairy talesfrom the perspective of CDA, and studies what language features and styles of thediscourse Andersen applies to present the male-dominated gender view, and then explainsthe main cause of the male-dominated gender view behind the fairy tales.This thesis attempts to use the combinative framework of CDA between NormanFairclough’s three-dimensional framework (text, discursive, and social practice) andHalliday’s systemic functional linguistics. The thesis respectively analyzes genderaddressing forms and epithet from lexical perspective, sentence types and transitivity fromsyntactical perspective in the level of text; interprets text production, distribution andconsumption in the level of discursive; and explains the relationship between ideology andpower in that period of time in the level of social practice. Through the study, it canconclude that the author Andersen, in four aspects of gender addressing forms, epithet,sentence types and transitivity, applies language features and styles of the discourse topresent the male-dominated gender view. Meanwhile, Danish society, when Andersen’sfairy tales are produced, distributed, and consumed, experienced social change from feudalautocracy to constitutional monarchy. The relationship between ideology and power is themain cause of the male-dominated gender view behind the fairy tales.