Reclaiming Agency: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Power and Gender Narratives in Khadija Mastur’s ‘The Women’s Courtyard’ and ‘A Promised Land’

Abstract

The current research aims to do the feminist critical discourse analysis of Khadija Mastur’s novels “The Women’s Courtyard (2018)” and “A Promised Land (2019)”, translated in English by Daisy Rockwell. The study aims to highlight the intricate web of gender and power narratives within these texts, by focusing on the ways through which female characters navigate and subvert societal norms and structures. Through the close examination of linguistic and narrative choices within these texts, this research analyzes how the female characters of Mastur’s novels challenge the traditional gender roles, reclaim their agency and negotiate their positions within the patriarchal society. Lazar’s concept of Feminist critical discourse analysis is employed as a lens to analyze the gender representation and power dynamics in the discourse. Feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) is an extended version of critical discourse analysis (CDA) that focuses on the construction of gender-based ideologies. It focuses on the use of language in the text especially how the language has been used to portray the female gender and their identity. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model is used as a theoretical framework to analyze how language is linked with power and ideology. Through the three dimensions, the study focuses on the functions of language, the production and interpretation of discourse and the social practices that influence the discourse. The findings of this study highlight that through the use of different lexical choices such as verbs, phrases, metaphors and symbols, Mastur has depicted the struggle of her female characters living in patriarchal system to challenge and negotiate the societal norms and reclaim their agency.