ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates intertextual practices in various kinds of institutional settings, demonstrating how such an investigation can shed light on larger patterns of gendered inequalities. According to Blommaert (2005: 67), approaches to discourse analysis that focus on ‘unique, one-time’ instances of texts ignore a salient feature of communication in contemporary societies – that texts and narratives move around, are repeatedly recontextualised in new interpretive spaces, and in the process undergo significant transformations in meaning. Moreover, to the extent that speakers may have unequal access to and/or control over the contextualising spaces in which their ‘texts’ appear (as is true for lay people in many institutional settings), these transformations in meaning can be deeply implicated in social inequalities. We present two close analyses of textual trajectories, one involving the legal system and one involving the mainstream media. In both cases, we attempt to demonstrate how texts can be invested with gendered and/or sexist meanings as they are transplanted into new contexts, reinforcing and perpetuating gendered inequalities.
