Malaysian Revisionary Folktale: Portrayal Of Adjectives For Female And Male Characters

This paper identifies the adjectives used to depict male and female characters in female and male-centric Malaysian revisionary folktales to determine whether the characters are subjected to linguistic sexism. A content analysis of the corpus was conducted to identify the linguistic portrayal of characters in two revisionary Malaysian folktales from Daphne Lee's Malaysian Tales Retold and Remixed. The adjectives were analysed using Turner-Bowker's linguistic portrayal of gender and were further evaluated using Abdul Hamid’s Types of Adjectives in gender representation to elucidate whether linguistic sexism is perpetuated in describing the characters. The findings revealed that the female-centric folktale’s protagonist is a liberated and emancipated female character that portrays revisionary feminine identities, emphasising women’s assertion of their autonomy and the expansion of the female subject position in non-traditional domains. In contrast, in the male-centric folktale, the protagonist is subjected to patriarchal values, as all the secondary male characters overpower the protagonist due to the patriarchal society’s male-dominated power structure. Despite the changes in how females are depicted in folktales, gender stereotyping still exists in male-centric revisionary folktales. Hence, this study contributes to society by creating a liberating journey of understanding, tolerating, and appreciating new genres, regardless of gender or issues presented, that can move our nation to become more modern and progressive.