The hidden value of an underrated genre: chick lit

Abstrakt

The purpose of this article is to present selected aspects of chick lit that confirm the literary and linguistic value of this genre, which is often dismissed as trivial or commercial. The author has been studying this type of fiction, with particular attention to paratextuality and the aesthetic function of language, and argues against critics who deny that novels labelled as chick lit constitute a valuable corpus for linguistic research. The article shows that such texts offer much more than is commonly assumed, highlighting such features as intertextuality, neologisms and irony, which are crucial for understanding the genre and its name. On the basis of an analysis of one of the most canonical works of chick lit, Bridget Jones’s Diary, the article demonstrates that women’s fiction not only reflects female experience but also offers a rich and interesting field for linguistic study.