Vježba iz feminističke stilistike
An Exercise in Feminist Stylistics

Summary/Abstract: The first part of the article tries to (re)define feminist stylistics, i.e. its subject, interest fields and possible methodological frameworks within Croatian context. Trying to arrive at a workable definition of feminist stylistics, a dialogue is established with selected foreign and Croatian literature on stylistic disciplines on the one hand, and on feminist criticism in literary theory on the other hand. The author argues for an understanding of feminist stylistics as a discipline between critical discourse analysis (especially in view of methodology) and literary theory (especially regarding attention given to relations of gender, sexism, ideology and the relationship between the physical and implied reader). An interdisciplinary feminist stylistics argues for gender, identity, discourse, context and awareness of politics; it deals with both literary and non-literary texts. Emphasis is put on the text–reader interaction, i.e. the dominant and other possible readings, which is the subject of the second part of the article. Here, a poetic text (Slavko Mihalić: Approaching of a Storm) and its established criticism is analysed from a feminist stylistic position as outlined in the first part. The selected text is interesting because it exemplifies a representation of the voice of the »silenced« woman and the ways in which the markers of femininity/ masculinity and gender roles can be detected in the text. These questions are brought forth by posing Vera’s silence not as a fact but as a problem. From the outlined four possible readings of the text, two non-dominant ones are further elaborated. The feminist stylistic approach is thus positioned as a subversive reading in opposition to the dominant reading recognized by the critics.

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