REPRESENTATION OF MARYAM IN A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUN: A CORPUS-BASED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study investigates the representation of Maryam in A Thousand Splendid Sun through corpus-based critical discourse analysis. For the analysis of the study the researcher uses Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) as theoretical framework, which includes nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivization, and intensification/mitigation strategies. The study explores that how Maryam is represented in this novel, what discursive strategies shape her portrayal, and in what ways these narratives develop new forms of representing Muslim female identities in the global context. The study offers an empirical and interpretive account of how language contributes to literary conceptions of identity by combining critical discourse analysis with corpus linguistics tools like keywords and concordance analysis. Maryam, as a Muslim is positioned through binary oppositions of "good" versus "bad", elevating secular and Western-aligned subjectivities while marginalizing religious and resistant voices. It is explored from the analysis that these representational tensions are not merely literary but deeply ideological, shaping that how Maryam as a Muslim, is represented in the post-9/11 world. By highlighting the importance of language in defining identities and advocating for more varied and self-represented Muslim voices in modern literature, this study advances research on critical discourse studies, postcolonial literary criticism, and Muslim representation.