STYLISTIC REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN ENGLISH FICTION

This article examines the stylistic representation of gender in English fiction across different historical periods. It analyzes gender not merely as a social category, but as a complex conceptual phenomenon constructed through language, narrative strategies, metaphorical systems, and discourse structures within literary texts. The study explores gender representation based on the approaches of stylistics, gender theory, feminist stylistics, queer stylistics, and cognitive stylistics. The article discusses the formation of representations of femininity and masculinity in classical, modernist, and contemporary English literature, focusing on how gender roles are expressed through lexical choices, metaphors, character speech, narrative techniques, and points of view. It also highlights traditional gender oppositions in classical literature, the emphasis on inner consciousness and subjectivity in modernist texts, and the emergence of fluid, diverse, and non-traditional gender identities in contemporary fiction. The findings demonstrate that literary language not only reflects existing social perceptions of gender but also serves as a powerful means of reconstructing, challenging, and transforming gender ideologies.