Gendered Information Networks and the Telephone Voice in Shaw's "Pygmalion" and "Village Wooing"

This article considers women's contributions to the work of linguistic purification through their enforcement of the "telephone voice," a strict method of articulation taught to switchboard operators. Situating George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and Village Wooing in their technolog...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inTexas studies in literature and language Vol. 60; no. 1; pp. 32 - 55
Main Author JANECHEK, JENNIFER
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Austin UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS 22.03.2018
University of Texas Press
University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press)
Subjects
British & Irish literature
Communication
Criticism and interpretation
Drama
Dramatists
French literature
Inscriptions
Irish literature
Language
Linguistics
Literary canon
Literary criticism
Modernity
Periodicals
Playwrights
Portrayals
Proust, Marcel (1871-1922)
Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950)
Shaw, George Bernard (British playwright)
Social aspects
Sound
Speaking
Speech
Standardization
Telephone operators
Telephones
Voice
Women
Works
Written language
United Kingdom > UK
Florida
United States > US
Texas
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This article considers women's contributions to the work of linguistic purification through their enforcement of the "telephone voice," a strict method of articulation taught to switchboard operators. Situating George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and Village Wooing in their technological climate, it argues that these plays imagine the new experience women might have with language in a telephonic world while also searching out a mode of acoustic inscription modeled on the telephone voice that might narrow the gap between script and performance.
ISSN:0040-4691
1534-7303
DOI:10.7560/TSLL60102