Face Threatening Act as a Representation of Gender Discrimination in the Novel ‘Zinah’

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-162-3_41How to use a DOI?

Keywords

face-threatening acts; pragmatics; arabic literature

Abstract

Avoiding FTAs (Face Threatening Acts) is one of the politeness strategies that needs to be practiced to build effective communication. Unfortunately, FTAs often become a habit that is difficult to avoid, and they are sometimes intentionally performed by certain individuals with the aim of humiliating specific social groups. In Arab literature, it serves as one of the means employed by the Arab society to depict the reality of social and cultural life among the Arab nation. One dominant cultural aspect within Arab society is patriarchy. In addition, gender discrimination is a frequently highlighted issue in literary works. This research aims to explore the forms of FTAs spoken by the characters in the novel “Zinah”. The novel is the last work written by Nawal el-Sa’dawi, an Egyptian feminist known for addressing gender issues boldly. The results of this research indicate that FTAs are expressed in the form of directive speech acts, which serve to command, warn, and impose opinions, as well as expressive speech acts in the form of insults. All FTAs are directed towards women and represent a form of gender discrimination, including subordination, stereotypes, and verbal violence. All male characters in the novel use religious elements to discriminate against women.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tika Fitriyah
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/23
TI  - Face Threatening Act as a Representation of Gender Discrimination in the Novel ‘Zinah’
BT  - Proceedings of the International Seminar SEMANTIKS & PRASASTI 2023 Theme: Language in the Workplace (PRASASTI 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 304
EP  - 310
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-162-3_41
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-162-3_41
ID  - Fitriyah2023
ER  -