Feminine Sex Role and Gender Masculine Role in One Half From the East: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to probe feminist concept of sex role and gender masculine gender role in Nadia Hashmi’s novel One Half from the East from the perspective of feminist critical discourse analysis. This study also intends how gender roles are structured in discourse constructions to reinforce existing social realities, disseminating gender inequalities and discrimination.  Addressing social issues such as socially constructed gender roles in the discourses of novel’s major characters is an attempt to raise awareness and expose gender discrimination and inequities.  The study is a qualitative exploration; therefore, passages have been taken from the discourses of major characters from the novel concerning gender roles. These selected passages were analysed textually through the lens of Lazar’s (2005) feminist critical discourse analysis to reveal the gender discriminations through socially given gender roles to the main characters in the novel. The study found that Hashmi’s novel, One Half From the East, discursively portrays the distinct gender roles ascribed to the major characters, with femininity and masculinity defined in relation to biological sex. These roles, firmly rooted in the Afghan sociocultural structure, are expressed through the discourses of the novel’s central characters, highlighting the structural foundations of gendered expectations.