GENDER ISSUES IN MOHSIN HAMID’S MOTH SMOKE: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED EXCERPTS

Abstract

Gender refers to socio-cultural values and mores attributed to masculinity and femininity, as well as to the psycho-sexual differences between men and women, in a society. Consequent upon this, the present position paper explores and highlights the issues of gender discrimination in an upper middle class of the Pakistani society, concerning Mohsin Hamid’s “Moth Smoke” (2000). This qualitative study invokes poststructuralist perspective for linguistic analysis of the literary text, in the light of Norman Fairclough’s CDA (1989), which entails trio of analysis: that is, description, interpretation, and explanation. For that matter, the current paper concentrates on the linguistic analysis of selected passages from the novel under review. The principles and practices of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) have conspicuously significant implications on how transformational change(s) in a society can be introduced and implemented, subsequently. As a result, the paper imparts an input and insight (through the aforesaid linguistic analysis) into the struggle of a female character, Mumtaz, in an upper middle class of the Pakistani society, concerning the narrative under reference.