Language and Ideology in I am Malala (2013): A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Language and ideology as an instrument in the hands of the powerful has an overarching hold on the people. As a nexus, it is not only a potent weapon of intervention but also a vector of (re)presentation. In its potential power, it does not ‘reflect’ the social reality only; it ‘refracts’ it too. Fascinated by such interplay of language and ideology, the aim of the present study is to investigate how and which aspects of language play more significant roles in ideologically manipulating the potential readers of I am Malala (2013), and ultimately how these aspects of language could be systematically analyzed. Essentially, through the lens of Fairclough’s ‘three dimensional model’ of CDA (1989, 1992, & 2003), a textual analysis is conducted on the purposively collected extracts of the biography. And, the study has been found that in the biography, the language has been appropriated at both the levels of morphology (i.e., vocabulary) and syntax (i.e., sentence structure) to promote the Western version of the ‘fictionalized Islam’ and to encourage a specific political propaganda against Pakistan.