Dialectical relational analysis of power and resistance in the Oscar winning documentaries on Acid victims and Honour Killing
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Date
2016
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University of Management and Technology Lahore
Abstract
This study aimed to explore power differential between genders by focusing on the discourses of power and resistance in Chinoy's documentary films on acid victims and honour killing. The feminists' perspective on gender and patriarchal social structure provided theoretical foundations to understand the nature of gender in relation to social institutions in Pakistan. The concept of power and resistance is delineated in the light of Foucault's theory of power to determine the power relations between men and women. The data were collected from two films ‘Saving Face' and ‘A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness' by Shermeen Obaid Chinoy. Fairclough's version of CDA was applied to analyse selected discourses of men and women in the films. The results revealed that language is a tool to enact power relations between genders through the ideology of honour which are fluid and context specific as well as linked with other social hierarchies' e.g. socio-economic and educational status. Power and resistance exist together in the same body. The findings show power is negative and productive, the former refers to oppression and the later indicates resistance. Resistance manifests positive aspect of power that contests oppression to enhance equal power relations between genders. It is hoped that this study would contribute in the existing scholarship on the nature of power and on-going research on discourses and power relations between genders.
Description
Supervised by:Dr. Muhammad Shaban
Keywords
Power and resistance, Nature of power, M.Phil Thesis