A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF COLONIAL THEMES IN ICE-CANDY MAN AND POST-COLONIAL THEMES IN AN AMERICAN BRAT SHAPING GENDERED LANGUAGE

Abstract

The present study examines the discursive representation of female identity in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man (1988) and An American Brat (1993), using a corpus-derived quantitative and interpretive analysis based on Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) and postcolonial theory. AntConc software was applied to identify the gender, agency and social roles-related recurrent lexical items (i.e., voice, girl, woman, freedom education independent body honour) appearing in both novels and look for recurrent patterns of representation. The contrast in the quantitative results is strong: Postcolonial narratives in An American Brat are about independence, education and finding freedom of self-expression while colonial (Ice-Candy Man) narratives exposes physical vulnerability and policing of society’s honor.

The analysis of a few selected concordance lines further reveals how language shapes gender-based power structures and agencies at a given time in history " language in use. These Women Characters of An American Brat Female characters  move much as male ones do, through transnational spaces, in order to claim autonomy and challenge patriarchal practices and attitudes; while they find personal freedom seemingly at some remove from home, for women humiliation is visited on a woman’s body. In Ice-Candy Man bodies or a woman’s reputation stand for the power structure; female private space serves the public interest – whether it be family honour or nationalist politics. The gendered language serves both as a weapon of subjugation and resistance, mirroring and shaping women's lives across time and space. These findings contribute to feminist literary scholarship and postcolonial studies by elucidating the evolving discursive strategies through which female identity is negotiated, constrained, and empowered in South Asian literature.