USE OF SLANG IN 1990’S BRITISH AND AMERICAN FILMS – A GENDER STUDIES PERSPECTIVE
USE OF SLANG IN 1990’S BRITISH AND AMERICAN FILMS – A GENDER STUDIES PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: Language is a complex system that is always changing and growing as it is being used in establishing knowledge, setting the norms, values, status, and to establish cohesion and trust. However, language also plays a role in constructing social meaning. One of the more interesting phenomena when it comes to new words invention is the use of slang. Slang is one of the vehicles through which language changes and becomes renewed, and the vigor and color of slang enrich daily speech. This paper will study the usage of slang in different British and American films that deal with drug abuse in order to see how and on which scale slang is being used, and more specifically to see what the differences are in use between British and American films that deal with the topic of drug abuse. The films which will be analyzed are Trainspotting, Human Traffic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Basketball Diaries. The overall aim is to investigate slang as it is reflected in films about drug abuse made in the 1990s. More specific research questions are: What different areas of use are represented in the slang that is being used? Is there a difference in the way men and women use slang? Slang is a male-dominated world, with women playing only minor roles so it is supposed that there are differences in gender representation in the usage of slang

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