Abstract
Abstract This article examines how gender shapes readers’ perceptions of literary authorship when biographical information is withheld. Using an explanatory mixed-methods design, it investigates how male and female university students infer an author’s gender from short prose excerpts and which cues guide these inferences. Data come from 83 undergraduates (62 women, 21 men) at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, who completed a questionnaire containing seven anonymised excerpts from Kazakh and World prose fiction by three female and four male authors. For each excerpt, participants indicated whether they believed the author to be male or female and provided open-ended justifications. Quantitative analysis (error rates and chi-square tests) shows that both female and male readers identified male authors more accurately than female authors. Although female readers displayed a modest advantage, misclassification of female-authored texts remained frequent in both groups, indicating a shared tendency to assume male authorship. Qualitative thematic analysis of the justifications reveals reliance on strongly gendered markers and stereotypes: male authors were associated with strength, rationality, history and power, whereas female authors were linked to emotionality, vulnerability and relational or domestic roles. The study provides empirical evidence on the gendered reception of literary texts.