NEGOTIATING FEMALE MARGINALITY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF FEMININE POWER STRUGGLE WITHIN PATRIARCHAL SETUP IN JAVERI’S NOBODY KILLED HER

Abstract

This research paper critically analyses the negotiation of marginality, agency, and power that women negotiate in the context of a deeply patriarchal social setup in Javeri’s Nobody Killed Her. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and specifically Michelle M. Lazar’s Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) to examine how language is a space of limitation and negotiation of feminine power. It does not just depict women as victims of patriarchal domination, but also examines the complexities of responses women characters have to the expectations imposed on them, gender hierarchies, silencing and unequal power relations. Emphasis is placed on the discursive structures that enable the reproduction, contestation and sometimes internalisation of patriarchy and on the subtle modes of resistance that women use to recover their voice and agency. The analysis shows that the marginality of women is not static but is a space contested, where power is negotiated continuously. The paper also suggests that the fight for feminine power takes place in two ways: overt resistance and the negotiation on a daily basis, manifesting in tensions between conformity, survival, autonomy and self-expression. The interdisciplinary approach of the paper demonstrates the potential of the convergence of gender studies and CDA to reveal the discursive strategies that reinforce and reflect patriarchy but also facilitate resistance. Ultimately, Nobody Killed Her presents femininity as a complex and dynamic experience, defined by differential power dynamics, but also by women’s ongoing efforts to change their role in a male-dominated system.