A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Speech Acts in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels
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Date
2020
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UMT Lahore
Abstract
The study examines how speech acts in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels portray male hegemonic structures in place. The analysis is made by using the conceptual framework of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) which focuses on how gendered relations of power are reproduced, negotiated and contested in society. In order to apply this approach, I have chosen the novels, Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013) as the primary texts. The research question designed in this study asks: how the female characters in the selected novels carve out their space despite the dominion of the male hegemonic structures. Various factors like male control, sovereignty and the subjugation of women play a significant part in the preeminence of patriarchal setup presented in the novels. However, the females create an emancipatory space for themselves and make some fruitful efforts such as retaliatory strategies to reverse the cycle of male domination. Speech acts theory has been used for the purpose of analysis in which I have used expressives, imperatives, directives, commissives, emphatics and assertives as the major speech acts. The research aims to find out how these speech acts depict the concept of male hegemony .The theory of FCDA helps in the analysis of the texts and it foregrounds the idea of female characters creating a free space for themselves.