CONSTRUCTING GENDER, POWER, AND PATRIARCHAL IDEOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY PAKISTANI TELEVISION DRAMAS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF DR. BAHU AND BAKHTAWAR  

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze discursively the representation of gender, power and patriarchy in the two contemporary Pakistani TV dramas (Dr. Bahu and Bakhtawar) using Norman Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The study uses a qualitative research design and analyzes purposively selected dialogues from both dramas to understand how language constructs, reproduces, negotiates, and challenges gendered power relations in the context of the family, society and the workplace. The analysis shows that the dramas are engaged in the operation of various discursive practices which both reproduce and challenge dominant patriarchal discourses. Patriarchal authority is reproduced in everyday encounters, in cultural norms and in institutionalized norms and expectations about gender, but also negotiated through the agency of women, female resistance, female education and competence in professional work. In addition, the study reveals that power relations are not fixed, but they are continually negotiated through dialogue, wherein both female and male characters are able to renegotiate the traditional roles and social identities. The comparative study is useful in revealing the changing image of women as active agents in social processes and the constant ideology which underpinned gender relations in Pakistani society. The research concludes that Dr. Bahu and Bakhtawar are important cultural texts in present era which are reflective and formative of the evolving discourses of gender, power and patriarchy. It has also shown that by using Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model the complex relationship between the social, ideology and discourse in Pakistani television discourse can be uncovered. This study is an analysis of the comparative analysis of two contemporary dramas, which can be understood in the context of the fast-developing research in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis, Gender Studies, Media Discourse Analysis and Pakistani Television.