Ce modele de gen transmite canonul școlar? O perspectivă lingvistică asupra (sub)reprezentării feminității în romanele de secol XX din programa de bacalaureat
What Gender Models Does the School Canon Promote? A Linguistic Perspective on the (Under)Representation of Femininity in the 20th-Century Novels from the Baccalaureate Curriculum

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to analyse, from a predominantly linguistic perspective, the construction of gender models in twentieth-century Romanian novels, with a particular focus on representations of femininity. The study focuses on five novels by canonical authors included in the Romanian National Baccalaureate curriculum. The approach seeks to identify the mechanisms through which different configurations of femininity are constructed within gender relations, examining decision-making capacity, assumed social roles, and representations of the female body in the selected texts.The analysis develops along two main directions: (1) the distribution of narrative voice, through the examination of thematic roles, narrative focalization, and female characters’ access to discourse; and (2) the evaluation of femininity, through the analysis of evaluative lexicon and discursive strategies used to describe female behaviour. Within this framework, particular attention is given to the strategies through which such representations legitimize or naturalize the social order specific to the historical context of the period.The research proceeds from the premise that female models in twentieth-century Romanian fiction are shaped by an asymmetrical distribution of access to discourse, gender relations revealing a structural underrepresentation of the female voice. Furthermore, the discursive configuration of femininity recurrently privileges positions associated with social exchange, possession, and moral evaluation, while exceptions remain marginal and ultimately reinforce the normative character of this distribution. By situating the analysis within the framework of the school canon, the study seeks to highlight not only the textual particularities of femininity’s representation, but also the ways in which these representations contribute to the consolidation of culturally legitimate models within literary education.

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