Narrative Voice and Female Subjectivity: A Socio-linguistic Inquiry into Violence in Tarantino's Cinema

Authors

  • Luyin Cao

    School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT Leeds, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11527
Received: 7 August 2025 | Revised: 25 August 2025 | Accepted: 12 September 2025 | Published Online: 21 October 2025

Abstract

This study investigates how Quentin Tarantino's films construct discourses of female violence and subjectivity, focusing on Kill Bill (2003) and Inglourious Basterds (2009). It examines how the protagonists, Beatrix Kiddo and Shosanna Dreyfus, are positioned as active architects of violence who reclaim autonomy within within male-dominated social and narrative frameworks.Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study emphasizes the linguistic dimensions of speech acts, metaphors, and narrative framing, showing how language functions as a medium for resistance and the negotiation of gendered power relations. Beatrix embodies vengeance through direct combat, while Shosanna employs vigilance and silence as strategic tools; both approaches reveal different pathways to restoring subjectivity. Yet the empowerment they achieve is inherently paradoxical: their use of violence reproduces the traditional masculine models of aggression and retribution, blurring the line between liberation and conformity. This duality demonstrates that while Tarantino's female characters resist patriarchal constraints, they simultaneously embody its logic of power. The findings contribute to feminist film theory by providing a nuanced perspective on how language and violence together shape, challenge, and complicate the representation of femininity in contemporary action cinema.

Keywords:

Female Violence; Feminist Film Theory; Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); Gender and Cinema; Quentin Tarantino; Kill Bill

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How to Cite

Cao, L. (2025). Narrative Voice and Female Subjectivity: A Socio-linguistic Inquiry into Violence in Tarantino’s Cinema. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(11), 600–614. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i11.11527

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 11 (November 2025): In progress

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Article

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Copyright © 2025 Luyin Cao

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.