Department of English
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Item Power and Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistan’s Toshakhana Act, 2024(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2025) Mahnoor Mustafa Khan; FA23-REL-015; Dr. Rai Zahoor Ahmed; LHR TP 9743By employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective, the current research critically analyzes the Toshakhana (Management and Regulation) Act, 2024, to examine how the language of this law creates and imitates relationships of power and ideologies of governance in the Pakistani governance system. Using the framework of the CDA proposed by Van Dijk (1997), the research explores the Act on three levels: macrostructure (themes and topics), mesostructure (discursive strategies), and microstructure (linguistic features) to show how authority, regulation, and transparency are equally constructed by discourse. The analysis contextualizes the Act within its socio-political and historical context not only to understand the role of the reformist governance but also the maintenance of the bureaucratic rule. In the evaluation of how discourse in law express ideological positions, the research allows an insight into how language is used as power in legal writings. The findings reveal that, although the Act advances accountability and transparency in the handling of state gifts, it also grants the state leverage over information and public office-holders via the application of direct, formal language. It also mirrors anti-corruption, controlled-transparency, and legal-deterrence ideologies, presenting compliance as a duty that is at once legal and ethical. Example to tie gift auctions to the uplift of female education shows state authority even more compelling within the framework of public welfare.Item Gendered Language and Power: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Women’s Representation in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names.(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2025) Hassan Mahmood; FA23-REL-010; Dr. Rai Zahoor Ahmed; LHR TP 9739While postcolonial and feminist literary studies have made significant strides, there remains a notable gap in examining how gendered language operates simultaneously as a force of oppression and a means of resistance, particularly within diasporic African narratives. This study addresses that gap by focusing on We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, using a discourse-analytical approach that combines Michelle Lazar’s Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (2005) with Homi Bhabha’s concept of the Third Space. By situating the analysis within these frameworks, the research investigates how language reflects and reinforces hierarchical structures of power. It looks specifically at the representation of female voices in a range of social contexts, paying close attention to how these voices are constrained or empowered through language. The methodology is qualitative and interpretive, cantering on selected dialogue and narrative moments in the text to explore how language becomes a site of struggle. The findings point to a pattern of linguistic marginalization faced by female characters. Elements such as silence, exclusion, and passive roles often mirror the deeper patriarchal systems at work. However, the analysis also uncovers moments where these same characters exert agency, for instance, by using silence strategically, or by reshaping dominant narratives through storytelling and subtext. Scenes involving Darling’s mother, the imagery of displaced women, and moments of quiet but clear verbal defiance illustrate how resistance is expressed in layered, sometimes understated ways. In doing so, the research contributes to feminist discourse analysis by highlighting the complexity of women's resistance in postcolonial literature. Rather than framing resistance as always direct or confrontational, the study shows how it often operates subtly in language choices, omissions, and narrative shifts. It argues that in Bulawayo’s novel, language is not only a means of control but also a resource through which marginalized voices are reclaimed, redefined, and made audible in contexts shaped by both colonial and patriarchal ideologies.