An Interpretation Of Gender Relations In Persuasion From The Perspective Of Critical Discourse Analysis

The focal point of CDA is to investigate the interrelationship among language, power and ideology. According to Fairclough(1989), power is usually realized through ideology and the aim of CDA is to reveal the hidden ideologies laden in discourses, such as hierarchies, power relations, and gender inequality and so on. Gender inequality is one of the most important topics that CDA linguists have investigated. However, most of the previous studies on gender relations within the framework of CDA mainly focused on the public discourses or official discourses. Little attention has been paid to literary discourses. The present study makes an attempt to interpret the gender relations in the novel Persuasion from the perspective of CDA.Previous studies on Persuasion are mainly carried out from the angle of literary criticism or literary appreciation. Few studies interpret it from the perspective of linguistics. The present thesis intents to employ the approach of CDA to analyze Persuasion, and it aims to disclose the covert ideologies, the unequal gender relations and to show how females fight against the gender inequality and strive for equal rights with men. SFG provides one of the most effective methods for CDA to reveal the unequal power relations in many discourses. Therefore, this study will employ some theories in Halliday?s SFG as analytical tools and the ideational function, interpersonal function and lexicon classification will be used in this study. Methodologically, the “research” function of word2003 and manual check are employed to calculate the frequency of lexicons, transitivity processes, and mood and modality systems. The analyses of the data show the distinctions in language between male and female characters.Through a critical analysis of Persuasion, the hidden gender ideology and the unequal gender relations between male and female are revealed. By analyzing the distinctions between males? and females? language, this study testifies that males in that society are in a dominant position, while females are subjected to men. Furthermore, through the analysis of the changes of the heroine?s language in the conversations, this study also finds out that females gradually dare to challenge the male?s dominant role and struggle for their own speech rights. These findings show the germination of the feminist consciousness in the novel. It is hoped that the present study can contribute to the gender studies.