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Title A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL OF PAKISTANI WOMEN BY PAKISTANI-AMERICAN SHORT FICTION WRITERS USING TRANSITIVITY

Author(s) SHUMAILA ASHEE

Abstract The present study investigates the portrayal of Pakistani women as depicted in Pakistani-American short fiction. The data is gathered from two Pakistani- American short fiction writers, namely: DaniyalMueenuddin and Shaila Abdullah. For the analysis of the text, Transitivity is used as analytical framework. As transitivity has been used in many researches for the understanding of characters, to study society and social norms, and to excavate the ideological stance of the author, therefore, this research contributes to the framework of Transitivity. In this study, the emphasis is laid upon different transitivity patterns used by Abdullah and Mueenuddin to understand the relation between diversified transitivity patterns and the variations in meaning making. The study will utilize the guidelines provided by Burton (1982) for the application of Transitivity. For the interpretation of the selected texts, the study employs Mills’ (2012) feminist transitivity analysis. Hence, in a series of step-wise analyses, enough objective data is obtained to reveal the fact that in Shaila Abdullah’s short stories women characters are passive and victimized by the patriarchal society. The central characters remain passive and ineffectual in changing their circumstances despite the huge space devoted to them in the entire discourse. On the contrary, the women characters presented by DaniyalMueenuddin are active and more influential in controlling the male participants. This study answers the question of how meanings are constructed in the text through the use of language and how the authors’ ideological stances are represented in the text through word choices.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2019-09-27

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