NEGOTIATING SINGLE MOTHERHOOD: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GENDER, AUTONOMY, AND MATERNAL IDENTITY IN PAKISTANI TELEVISION DRAMA BEHADD (2013)

Abstract

The critical examination of the way single motherhood is discursively constructed in Pakistani telefilm, Behadd (2013), has been conducted to investigate the issue using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Based on the framework of CDA proposed by Fairclough (1995) and Van Dijk (2008), the language, narrative patterns, visual representations, and character interaction in the image are examined in terms of how they are used as a device in the production and regulation of gendered identities in the context of a patriarchal society. Thereafter, the study views the screen of a television drama as a discursive arena in which meanings of motherhood, the feminine, women's autonomy and moralities are being constructed, negotiated and normalized. Intersectional Feminism (Crenshaw, 1989) is also used to help investigate the interactions between social power, cultural expectations and class in the construction of the meaning of single motherhood. Adopting a qualitative research design, selected scenario sections and dialogues of Behadd undergo macro-level and micro-level content analyses to examine how selected discourses such as sacrifice, maternal responsibility, emotional labour and female autonomy are constructed through the pattern of the conversation, narrative structure and symbolic aspects of the discourse. The findings show that while the telefilm offers a modern picture of women’s autonomy, representations of this type are securely contained in dominant patriarchal discourses, which maintain the emphasis on women's responsibility and sacrifice. The women's agency is thus formed, but not as a legitimate autonomy. The study contends that Behadd represents single motherhood as a state of negotiation, as a social identity that is at stake, where women's voice and agency are affirmed yet at the same time limited in the discourses enmeshed in culture. The paper connects the micro-level linguistic practices with the macro-level sociocultural ideology, and brings up the ideological approaches of Pakistani Television dramas to create and reinforce gender-based norms. The research has the potential to contribute to feminist media studies as it provides an illustration of how CDA helps to elicit subtle mechanisms in the discursive process around which gendered power relations are reproduced.