Normative Femininity as a Discursive Effect: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sayaka Murata’s Konbini Ningen

Abstract

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.