Book Review: Gender, Neoliberalism and Distinction through Linguistic Capital: Taiwanese Narratives of Struggle and Strategy. (Volume 15) (Encounters (15). By Mark Fifer Seilhamer Multilingual Matters, 2019, 232 pp.

• Authors: Savela Timo
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Gender, Neoliberalism and Distinction Through Linguistic Capital: Taiwanese Narratives of Struggle and Strategy, is an aptly titled book as, on one hand, it focuses on gender, neoliberalism, distinction and linguistic capital, and, on the other hand, it addresses these issues through narratives that pertain to everyday struggles and strategies that seek to address and overcome these struggles in the Taiwanese context. The title lives up to the expectations that it creates for the reader. If you keep the title in mind while reading the book, the author, Mark Seilhamer, provides reading that is not only coherent but also informative and, above all, pleasant to read. As the issues discussed in the book are rather complex and intertwined, addressing them in book format benefits the reader, something which Seilhamer is keenly aware of. Had these issues been addressed in a journal article or a number of journal articles, it is likely that it would have resulted in dense, if not tiresome reading. Some may take issue with the author’s somewhat informal and candid style, but I think it meshes well with the narrative approach, making the book more accessible to non-academics. Overall the book comes across as approachable and easy to read, even to people who are not familiar with the issues discussed in the book.

Keywords

EN

book review

• Publisher: Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej. Language and Society Research Committee
• Journal: Language, Discourse & Society
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 179-182
• Physical description: Book Review

Dates

published

2019-12-31

Contributors

author

Savela Timo