A DIACHRONIC CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF LIBERAL FEMINIST IDEOLOGY IN MALALA YOUSAFZAI’S SPEECHES

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of Malala Yousafzai’s speeches, whose stance has never been scrutinized through the lens of transformation. It focuses on the liberal feminist discourse evolution in the speeches of Malala from 2013 to 2026. Focusing on her 2013 UN address and her 2018 speech upon returning to Swat Valley, Pakistan and her 2026 UN: Justice cannot not be selective address. It centers on the linguistic features, pronoun shifts lexical choices, vocabulary, metaphors, modality, and rhetorical style, exposing the individual agency to collective action and how they construct liberal feminist meanings. Its accommodation across different contexts and audiences. This study is guided by Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which allows for the investigation of language as a social practice at three levels. This paper identifies the way discourse can be a strong instrument at the disposal of social resistance and advocacy by paying attention to the issue of feminist language use. This research encompasses evolution, adaptation, and progression from individual narrative to collective international advocacy. It provides a nuanced understanding of Malala’s speeches and responds to limitations in existing literature and fills a scholarly void of unexplored work on the evolution of her speeches.