ABSTRACT
Analysis on a discourse level has been used in the analysis of texts, but this study attempts to carry out a Critical Discourse Analysis of Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. The Norman Fairclough theory has been applied in this approach, paying more attention on the socio cultural and political issues in the text. The text, is a social drama which the author has used to expose some societal ills in the society, gender inequality and power relations in the text.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of contents vi
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction 1
1.2 Scope of the study 2
1.3 Justification 3
1.4 Methodology 3
1.5 Data description 4
1.6 Author’s background 4
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Discourse 6
2.1 Discourse analysis 7
2.2 A brief history of CDA 8
2.3 Definitions of CDA 9
2.4 Approaches to CDA 11
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Introduction 17
3.1 Data analysis 17
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Summary 39
4.1 Findings 39
4.2 Conclusion 40
4.3 Recommendations 41
Bibliography
INTRODUCTION
”Discourse” refers to expressing oneself using words Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is concerned with studying and analyzing written texts and spoken words to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias and how this sources are initiated, maintained, reproduced and transformed within specific social, economic, political and historical contexts. CDA along with other related disciplines attempts to reveal hidden meanings i.e. the ideological loads of the language and the exercise of power. CDA is a contemporary approach to the study of language and discourses in social institutions. It focuses on how social relations, identity, knowledge and power are constructed through written and spoken texts in communities, schools and classrooms.
CDA aims to make its users aware of and able to describe and deconstruct vectors and effects in texts and semiotic materials generally which might otherwise remain to wield power uncritiqued. In there respects, CDA may be a kind of wake up cal, or consciousness, rising about the coercive or anti-demo criticizing effects of the discourses we live by. Critical discourse analysts take explicit position and thus want to understand, expose and ultimately resist social inequality. In other words, CDA may be seen as a reaction against the dominant formal (social or uncritical most times) paradigms of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
This project focuses on an attempt to carry out a Critical Discourse Analysis of Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has Gone Mad Again. This chapter therefore focuses on the purpose of study, scope of the study, justification, methodology, data description and author’s background.