Dyke/Girl: Language and Identities in a Lesbian Group Book

Dyke/Girl details an ethnographic study with a British lesbian community of practice. It explores the discursive construction of identities within this group revealing myriad interactive tactics used by the women to produce mutually-negotiated norms of lesbian authenticity. The book engages in micro-level discourse analysis of contextualised interactions in order to identify how despite differing in their individual style practice and experience the women work together to construct a range of 'authentic' personae. The most prevalent of these is that of the dyke persona an identity which the women rework and reproduce as the most authentic 'type' of lesbian and the 'girl' persona constructed as an inferior inauthentic lesbian identity. The book provides a critical review of current work within queer linguistics and in doing so advocates and develops the sociocultural linguistic framework for research in this field.Read More