GENDERED DISCOURSE ON WOMEN'S IDENTITY: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF 'OUR LADY OF ALICE BHATTI'

Abstract

In addition to exploring how identity constructed through performance, this study inquired into how the construction of gender results in the emergence of power relationships between men and women. Focusing on selected extracts from a novel, this study applied close reading and textual analysis to the data. The study found that the female characters in the novel are embroiled in painful and complex situations, thus resulting in a war against the patriarchal
society by the protagonist. The study further revealed that the patriarchal society creates the myth that women are overly emotional, weak, submissive, shy and dependent. This patriarchal subjugation perpetuates the oppression by defining limited roles for women. In addition to the circumscription of their freedom, the women have to face all sorts of discrimination, with men inflicting pain by means of physical, emotional and mental oppression and abuse. This study contributes to literature by demonstrating how the construction of suppressed identity is a source of pressure for women and how the redefinition of identity results in feminist resistance against the patriarchy within the theoretical perspectives of feminism.