Normative femininity as a discursive effect : a critical discourse analysis of Sayaka Murata’s Konbini ningen

Silli, Stefani (author)

This paper analyzes how Sayaka Murata’s novel コンビニ人間 (Konbini ningen; Eng. Convenience Store Woman) constructs, reproduces and destabilizes gender norms, normative femininity, and womanhood in contemporary Japan. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, gender theory, and Judith Butler’s concept of performativity, the study applies Norman Fairclough’s three‑dimensional model to a close reading of key excerpts. The analysis demonstrates how normative scripts of womanhood are not only thematized but also actively produced and enacted: at the micro‑level, choices of lexis, metaphor, and modality; at the meso‑level, interactional routines of concern and advice; at the macro-level, links to the ideology of a male breadwinner, heteronormativity, and gender‑segmented labor regime. The analysis reveals how ‘normal womanhood’ emerges as an effect of discourse rather than as a natural given.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Sayaka Murata, gender and discourse, Fairclough CDA, Japanese literature, Japanese women writers
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 63-90
• Numbering: Vol. 16, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190488
• ISSN on article: 2232-3317
• DOI: 10.4312/ala.16.2.63-90
• Publication date in RUL: 04.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Acta linguistica asiatica
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-3317
• COBISS.SI-ID: 255902464

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Normativna ženskost kot diskurzivni učinek : kritična analiza diskurza romana Konbini ningen avtorice Sayake Murata

Abstract

Članek analizira, kako roman Konbini ningen (slov. Ženska iz trgovine z mešanim blagom) Sayake Murata konstruira, reproducira in destabilizira spolne norme ter predstave o normativni ženstvenosti v sodobni Japonski. Na podlagi kritične analize diskurza, teorije spola in koncepta performativnosti Judith Butler raziskava uporablja tridimenzionalni model Normana Fairclougha za natančno analizo izbranih odlomkov romana. Analiza pokaže, da se normativni vzorci ženstvenosti skozi diskurz aktivno ustvarjajo in udejanjajo: na mikro ravni z izbiro leksike, metafor in modalnosti, na mezo ravni skozi interakcijske rutine izražanja skrbi in dajanja nasvetov ter na makro ravni prek povezav z ideologijo moškega hranilca družine, heteronormativnostjo in spolno segmentiranim režimom dela. Celotna analiza razkriva, da se »normalna ženstvenost« ne vzpostavlja kot naravno dano dejstvo, temveč kot učinek diskurza.

• Keywords: Sayaka Murata, spol in diskurz, Faircloughova kritična analiza diskurza, CDA, japonska književnost, japonske pisateljice