Ideological Power Structures and Gendered Voices: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
Keywords:
Ideological Power Structures, Gendered Voices, Cda, Burnt Shadows, Kamila ShamsieAbstract
Language is a strong tool of constructing ideology and gender relations. Burnt Shadows (2009) by Kamila Shamsie is an intricate exploration of the intersection of the colonial, patriarchal, and war-related issues and the power structures prevailing or challenged by discourse. This study seeks to find the discursive methods employed in forming ideological and gendered discourses in Burnt Shadows as well as to understand how the female voice can be seen to oppose or go against these power structures. This qualitative study, based on the thematic analyses of linguistic patterns, narrative positioning and intertextuality decovers the ideological implications inherent in the text through the means of the Critical Discourse Analysis used by Fairclough (2013) and the socio-cognitive approach by van Dijk (1993). In the analysis, the language of Shamsie replicates and opposes hegemonic ideologies. Although the female characters have been ideologically silenced, they regain agency using memory, empathy and cross-cultural solidarity. The study finds that Burnt Shadows transforms discourse into a place of resistance and conveys how discourse of gendered voices can challenge the dominance of ideologies by the use of linguistic and emotional action.
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