The Syntax of Struggle: Gender, Language, and American Modernist Style

The book examines the relationship between language, gender, and subjectivity in selected works of American literature from the turn of the twentieth century and the modernist period. The book examines the relationship between language, gender, and subjectivity in selected works of American literature from the turn of the twentieth century and the modernist period. Instead of treating gender primarily as a thematic issue, it considers gender as interwoven with literary language, focusing on moments when narrative form, syntax, and voice breakdown under social and psychological pressure. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s distinction between the semiotic and the symbolic, the analysis centers on four texts in which the relationship between gender and language becomes especially visible: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald, and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. It contributes to feminist literary criticism and modernist studies by showing how literary language and stylistic form express tensions that cannot be fully conveyed through narrative content alone.