SILENCING VOICES, SCRIPTING FEMININITIES: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF POWER AND GENDER IN PAKISTANI DRAMAS

Abstract

This study employs critical discourse analysis to investigate how Pakistani dramas construct, silence and contest gender power relations over dialogues and narrative techniques. The data consists of selected dialogues from the Duniyapur and Dil-e-Nadan, mainly those that present the power relations, gendered discourse and reinforcement or challenges that govern ideologies about femininity. In this regard, the researchers used Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional method to help in analyzing dialogues involving textual analysis, discursive practice, and social practice. This study acknowledges that shame, honour, and patriarchy are dominant and prevailing aspects of Pakistani norms and culture. The analysis was based on Fairclough's three-dimensional model (1992) and linguistic modalities. The results provide vital information in reaching desired conclusion. The findings reveal that instead of portraying women's struggles, the dramas present patriarchal ideologies, scripting femininities within moderate boundaries to shape understandings of gender, especially female identities. Pakistan is a stereotypical society in which justification of human rights in general and particularly of the women is neglected.