EXPLORING CULTURAL AND GENDERED IDENTITIES THROUGH COGNITIVE GRAMMAR IN THE BAD MUSLIM DISCOUNT (2021)

Abstract

This study explores the construction of cultural and gendered identities in Masood’s The Bad Muslim Discount (2021) through Ronald Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar (CG). The study focuses on how linguistic choices shape the representation of identity, cultural difference, gender roles, and experiences of modernity. It employs a qualitative, descriptive-interpretive approach and analyses selected textual instances through key Cognitive Grammar concepts, including construal, profiling, figure–ground organization, trajector–landmark alignment, and perspective. The analysis shows that identities in the novel are not presented as fixed or isolated categories; rather, they are constructed through relationships between individuals, cultures, social expectations, and changing perspectives. Cognitive Grammar therefore provides a useful framework for explaining how linguistic structures make particular aspects of cultural and gendered experience more prominent while placing others in the background. The study concludes that the novel uses language to represent identity as dynamic, relational, and shaped by cultural and gendered experiences.