CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GENDER REPRESENTATION IN PAKISTANI DRAMAS MERI GURIYA AND BAKHTAWAR

Abstract

This research examines the representation of gender through language use by women in Pakistan's two Urdu dramas, Meri Guriya and Bakhtawar in relation to the interaction between discourse and gender ideologies within the Pakistani socio-cultural setting. This research seeks to understand how language plays a significant role in the construction of women's identity and how media discourse reinforces or subverts gender stereotypes. This study examines the dialogues of the plays, utilizing van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis, with the aim of identifying some prominent linguistic features used by female characters. This is a qualitative study which undertakes a textual analysis of certain dialogues from the dramas in order to demonstrate ideological tendencies and linguistic choices. The findings reveal that the traditional gender discourse still give preference to women-in-constrained, not decisive, not strong, not even willing and confident. However, Meri Guriya and Bakhtawar represent a new discourse, with more and more female characters speaking from the same linguistic position not for consent but for affirmation, power, and empowerment.