Feminine Sex Role and Gender Masculine Role in the Pearl That Broke its Shell: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate feminist concept of sex role and gender masculine gender role in Nadia Hashmi’s novel the pearl that broke its shell through the lens   of critical discourse analysis. This study explores how gender roles are constructed in discourse structures reinforce existing social realities, perpetuating 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 uncover the gender inequalities through socially given gender roles to the major characters in the novel. The study revealed Hashmi’s novel, the Pearl That Broke Its Shell intricately delineates different gender roles ascribed to the major characters in the novel with femininity and masculinity delineated along the axis of biological sex. These roles, deeply entrenched within the Afghan sociocultural framework, find articulation through the discourses of the novel’s protagonists, reflecting the structural underpinnings of gendered expectations.