FEMALE DISCOURSE(-S) IN SENECA'S TRAGEDIES?: Discours des personnages féminins chez Sénèque. Approches logométriques et contrastives d'un corpus théâtral. (Collection Latomus 359.) Pp. 399, figs. Brussels: Éditions Latomus, 2019. Paper, €68. ISBN: 978-90-429-3796-3

• Published in: The Classical Review 2020, Vol.70 (1), p.114-116
• Main Author: Martorana, Simona
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• Subjects: Corpus linguistics; Drama; Gender; Speeches
• ISSN: 0009-840X; 1464-3561
• DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X19001537

In particular, the heroines use many words pertaining to the familial sphere (coniunx, mater, nuptialis), while the heroes seem to be more concerned with paternity – rather than, V. argues, with other family members. [...]the analysis of the occurrences of negative vocabulary (‘vocabulaire négatif’, p. 113; although one wonders how this negativity has been categorised) as well as of words concerning the thematic sphere of love reveals a greater emotional intensity in female speeches than the male ones. [...]whilst the approach of the first three chapters is more holistic (as they take into account Seneca's drama as a unitary corpus), the fourth chapter is more focused on each specific tragedy, so a more ‘local’ point of enquiry is added to the previous ‘globalisante’ perspective (p. 184). [...]the results obtained from the computational analysis show that we cannot speak of a female discourse, but rather multiple female discourses, whose features change according to other factors (i.e. the role, the plot of the tragedy, the addressees etc).