PATRIARCHAL DISCOURSES IN PAKISTANI DRAMAS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Pakstani television dramas are among the most powerful cultural texts that shape and disseminate social meanings in everyday life. Far from being neutral entertainment, dramas function as discursive sites where ideologies of gender, family, and morality are reproduced and contested (Fairclough, 1995; Hall, 1997). This article applies Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (1992, 1995) in conjunction with Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (Lazar, 2005) to examine how patriarchal discourses are linguistically and semiotically produced in Urdu-language dramas. A purposive sample of prime-time serials broadcast on major Pakistani television networks was analyzed to identify textual patterns such as imperatives, interruptions, lexical choices of honor and shame, and narrative resolutions privileging male authority.The findings indicate that while women are frequently portrayed as obedient, sacrificial, and emotionally dependent, men are represented as decision-makers, rational actors, and moral guardians—an arrangement consistent with hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995) and institutional patriarchy (Walby, 1990). These textual practices intersect with broader sociocultural structures, including family hierarchies and religious-moral discourses, to normalize male dominance as “common sense” (Gramsci, 1971). At the same time, occasional counter-discourses emerge through resistant female characters and alternative audience readings. The study contributes to CDA scholarship by situating televised fiction in Pakistan as a site of ideological struggle and highlights the need for gender-sensitive media practices that can disrupt patriarchal reproduction