Gender representation through the lens of comparative structures in contemporary English-language women’s prose

Abstract

The aim of the research is to identify patterns in the representation of gender through comparative structures (similes and metaphors) in texts of contemporary English-language women’s prose. The work focuses on analyzing the figurative paradigms formed by stable associations between the comparadum (X-element, representing a gender characteristic) and the comparate (Y-element, the image of comparison). The scientific novelty lies in the integration of methods from gender linguistics, corpus analysis, and cognitive poetics to systematize invariants of these paradigms. For the first time, based on 1481 comparisons (483 masculine, 998 feminine), asymmetric representation models reflecting cultural stereotypes have been identified. The results showed an asymmetry in thematic focuses (feminine comparisons cover a wider range of characteristics (appearance, emotions, thinking), while masculine comparisons are reduced to appearance and actions); dominant paradigms (for women: Woman → Artifact, Woman → Fauna; for men: Man → Fauna, Man → Artifact); and cultural specifics: feminine comparisons exploit mythopoetics (mermaids, goddesses – 3.3 times more often), while masculine comparisons exploit functionality. The research confirms that comparison in a literary text serves as a tool for constructing gender stereotypes. Invariant paradigms (for example, Woman → Flora, which occurs 4.7 times more often) reflect culturally determined cognitive models.

Research materials

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: July 23, 2025.
• Published: September 1, 2025.

Keywords

• репрезентация гендера
• образные парадигмы сравнений
• сравнение в художественном тексте
• компарат
• компарадум
• gender representation
• figurative paradigms of comparisons
• comparison in literary text
• comparate
• comparadum

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