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Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”

The neologism “mansplaining” refers to a specific type of social behaviour in which “men [are] unnecessarily explaining things to women” (Bridges, 2021, p. 3). With the focus on “unnecessarily,” the verb “to mansplain” calls attention to cases of socio-pragmatic inappropriateness and more specifical...

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Main Author: Rycker, Teun De
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21280/1/TE%2010.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21280/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/index
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spelling my-ukm.journal.212802023-03-07T03:21:32Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21280/ Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me” Rycker, Teun De The neologism “mansplaining” refers to a specific type of social behaviour in which “men [are] unnecessarily explaining things to women” (Bridges, 2021, p. 3). With the focus on “unnecessarily,” the verb “to mansplain” calls attention to cases of socio-pragmatic inappropriateness and more specifically to violations of the Gricean Maxim of Quantity. In addition, the creative use of the “man-” morpheme highlights the problematic gendered nature of the phenomenon. This article is an attempt to interpret mansplaining in terms of a notion of interactional inhospitableness. Using a broad-based socio-pragmatic, conversational, discourse-analytical, and praxeological perspective, it will explore the mansplaining interaction (henceforth, the incident) that was recounted and recontextualised in Solnit’s (2008) famous essay, “Men Explain Things to Me: Facts Didn’t Get in Their Way.” The main finding is that though manipulative turn-taking and exploitative epistemic authority played an important role, it was affective asymmetries that made Solnit’s (2008) mansplaining episode uniquely “noticeable.” At the party where the incident occurred, hospitableness and high-culture competition appeared as two defining but conflicting features. This conflict cast the three main participants – not only as reductively gendered interlocutors but – as a failed and failing host (referred to as “Mr. Very Important” in the essay) and two of his guests (Rebecca Solnit and Sallie). The wider relevance and application of a notion of interactional (in)hospitableness will be discussed. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21280/1/TE%2010.pdf Rycker, Teun De (2022) Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”. 3L; Language, Linguistics and Literature, 28 (4). pp. 137-151. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/index
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description The neologism “mansplaining” refers to a specific type of social behaviour in which “men [are] unnecessarily explaining things to women” (Bridges, 2021, p. 3). With the focus on “unnecessarily,” the verb “to mansplain” calls attention to cases of socio-pragmatic inappropriateness and more specifically to violations of the Gricean Maxim of Quantity. In addition, the creative use of the “man-” morpheme highlights the problematic gendered nature of the phenomenon. This article is an attempt to interpret mansplaining in terms of a notion of interactional inhospitableness. Using a broad-based socio-pragmatic, conversational, discourse-analytical, and praxeological perspective, it will explore the mansplaining interaction (henceforth, the incident) that was recounted and recontextualised in Solnit’s (2008) famous essay, “Men Explain Things to Me: Facts Didn’t Get in Their Way.” The main finding is that though manipulative turn-taking and exploitative epistemic authority played an important role, it was affective asymmetries that made Solnit’s (2008) mansplaining episode uniquely “noticeable.” At the party where the incident occurred, hospitableness and high-culture competition appeared as two defining but conflicting features. This conflict cast the three main participants – not only as reductively gendered interlocutors but – as a failed and failing host (referred to as “Mr. Very Important” in the essay) and two of his guests (Rebecca Solnit and Sallie). The wider relevance and application of a notion of interactional (in)hospitableness will be discussed.
format Article
author Rycker, Teun De
spellingShingle Rycker, Teun De
Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”
author_facet Rycker, Teun De
author_sort Rycker, Teun De
title Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”
title_short Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”
title_full Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”
title_fullStr Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”
title_full_unstemmed Interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in Rebecca Solnit’s (2008) essay “Men Explain Things to Me”
title_sort interactional inhospitableness : a re-analysis of the mansplaining incident in rebecca solnit’s (2008) essay “men explain things to me”
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2022
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21280/1/TE%2010.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/21280/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/index
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score 13.211869

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