Clara Müllenmeister

Contesting Norms. Contradictions of Referential Gender

My Project examines the contradiction between the binary structure of referential gender and gender self-determination beyond this binary, based on the linguistic uncertainties that come with it. Doubt is understood as resulting from an unsettled relation of competing assertions to a subject, e.g. whether one or another linguistic variant is acceptable in a given situation. Doubt disrupts the speaking routine, drawing attention to the fact that we only have indirect and incomplete access to other’s perception and assessment of language. Regardless of whether it results in a changed routine or not, doubt involves a moment of linguistic reflection. My project uses discourse on doubt on referential presupposition of gender as a discourse-analytic approach to describing the constellations and dynamics of shared knowledge.