This article presents findings from a study investigating the gendered interpretative repertoires or ‘ways of seeing the world’ that a group of Japanese women drew on as they discursively constructed their gendered identities during semi-structured interviews. The study draws on critical discursive psychology which views language not simply as a window into people’s minds, but as a discursive resource which individuals utilize to perform various discursive functions. Participants assumed a range of subject positions in relation to these repertoires that suggests that Japanese society may be in a state of flux where dominant repertoires are undergoing discursive reformulation and change. Results of this study indicate that while interpretative repertoires constitute cultural ‘common sense’, individuals possess agency to discursively deploy, resist, and sometimes even reconstruct these discursive resources.
Allison, A. ( 1991) ‘Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus’, Anthropological Quarterly64(4): 195-208.
2.
Allison, A. ( 1994) Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
3.
Baxter, J. ( 2003) Positioning Gender in Discourse: A Feminist Methodology . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan .
4.
Billig, M. ( 1985) ‘Prejudice, Categorization and Particularization: From a Perceptual to Rhetorical Approach’, European Journal of Social Psychology15: 79-103.
5.
Billig, M. ( 1987) Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
Borovoy, A. ( 2005) The Too-Good Wife: Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Japan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
7.
Brinton, M. ( 1993) Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
8.
Davies, B. and Harré, R. ( 1990) ‘Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves’ , Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour20: 43-63.
9.
Davies, R. and Ikeno, O. (eds) (2002) The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture. Rutland, VT: Tuttle.
10.
Edley, N. ( 2001) ‘Analyzing Masculinity: Interpretative Repertoires, Ideological Dilemmas and Subject Positions’, in M. Wetherell, S. Taylor and S.J. Yates (eds) Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis, pp. 189-228. London: Sage.
11.
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. ( 1999) ‘Imagined Futures: Young Men’s Talk about Fatherhood and Domestic Life’, British Journal of Social Psychology38: 181-194.
12.
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. ( 2008) ‘Discursive Psychology and the Study of Gender: A Contested Space’, in K. Harrington , L. Litosseliti, H. Saunston and J. Sunderland (eds) Gender and Language Research Methodologies, pp. 161-73. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
13.
Edwards, D. and Potter, J. ( 1992) Discursive Psychology. London: Sage.
14.
Jefferson, G. ( 1990) ‘List Construction as a Task and Resource’ , in G. Psathas (ed.) Interaction Competence. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
15.
Kamada, L. ( 2009) ‘Mixed-Ethnic Girls and Boys as Similarly Powerless and Powerful: Embodiment of Attractiveness and Grotesqueness’, Discourse Studies11(3): 329-52.
16.
Kondo, D. ( 1990) Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
17.
Kurotani, S. ( 2005) Home Away from Home: Japanese Corporate Wives in the United States. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
18.
LeBlanc, R. ( 1999) Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
19.
Mouer, R. and Kawanishi, H. ( 2005) A Sociology of Work in Japan. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
20.
Nemoto, K. ( 2008) ‘Postponed Marriage: Exploring Women’s Views of Matrimony and Work in Japan’, Gender & Society22: 219-37.
21.
Ogasawara, Y. ( 1998) Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
22.
Potter, J. ( 1996) Representing Reality: Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Constructionism . London: Sage.
23.
Potter, J. and Wetherell, M. ( 1987) Discourse and Social Psychology. London : Sage.
24.
Reynolds, J. ( 2008) The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation. London: Routledge.
25.
Roberts, G. ( 1994) Staying on the Line: Blue-Collar Women in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
26.
Sheriff, M. and Weatherall, A.(2009) ‘A Feminist Discourse Analysis of Popular-Press Accounts of Postmaternity’ , Feminism & Psychology19(1): 89-108.
27.
Sugimoto, Y. ( 2003) An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Sunderland, J. ( 2004) Gendered Discourses. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
29.
Tokuhiro, Y. ( 2010) Marriage in Contemporary Japan. London : Routledge.
30.
Weatherall, A. ( 2002) Gender, Language and DiscourseLondon : Routledge.
31.
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. ( 1998) ‘Gender Practices: Steps in the Analysis of Men and Masculinities’, in K. Henwood, C. Griffin and A. Phoenix (eds) Standpoints and Differences: Essays in the Practice of Feminist Psychology, pp. 156-73. London: Sage.
32.
Wetherell, M. and Potter, J. ( 1992) Mapping the Language of Racism: Discourse and the Legitimation of Exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press.
33.
Wetherell, M., Stiven, H. and Potter, J. ( 1987) ‘Unequal Egalitarianism: A Preliminary Study of Discourses Concerning Gender and Employment Opportunities’, British Journal of Social Psychology26: 59-71.
34.
Yamada, M. ( 2001) Kazoku to iu Risku [Family Risk]. Tokyo: Keisoshobo.
