Charlotte Perkins Gilman'ın Herland ve Doris Lessing'in The Cleft başlıklı eserlerinde dil yolu ile kadınlık ve erkekliğin inşası

Language is essential for the construction of individuals' gender behaviours. Built upon dichotomies, gender behaviours ensure that female and male characters remain within the boundaries of femininity and masculinity through language. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915) and Doris Lessing's The Cleft (2009) depict female-only societies that the qualities of femininity and masculinity are attributed to the members of society through language. Even though the selected novels depict different eras of civilisation, in both novels, male-authorised history conveys and interprets women's stories through speech acts that shape feminine and masculine gender behaviours. An analysis of the novels shows that the characters in the novels perform their gender to fit into society. This thesis aims to analyse femininity and masculinity in the select novels through the theoretical framework of John L. Austin's speech act theory, Judith Butler's theory on gender performativity, and the findings of this analysis are further discussed with the major theories on gender behaviours. Consequently, the results of these examinations are used to reveal how the dynamics of being a female and a male are dictated through the language within the texts rather than sex. In light of these, it is concluded that language plays a prominent role in gender attributes compared to sex within the selected literary texts.