Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women's Identity and Social Agency in Iranian Feminist-Literary Discourse: A Case Study of Zoya Pirzad's Works

Document Type : Persian Research Article

Authors

1 PhD student in Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Khom.C., Islamic Azad University, Khomein, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Khom.C., Islamic Azad University, Khomein, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language Teaching, Khom.C., Islamic Azad University, Khomein, Iran

Abstract

This study employs a critical discourse analysis approach, based on Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model, to examine how women's identity and social agency are represented within a segment of Iranian feminist-literary discourse. To this end, two works by Zoya Pirzad—Three Books and I Turn Off the Lights—have been analyzed as examples of female narrative in contemporary Iranian fiction. The findings indicate that female identity in these works is shaped at the intersection of traditional family-oriented discourse and modernist individualistic discourse. At the textual level, the representation of women is realized through vocabulary and imagery associated with home, care, silence, routinization, self-sacrifice, and family responsibility—elements that position women as caring, order-giving subjects predominantly confined to the private sphere. At the interpretive level, Pirzad's narratives reveal that domination over women is not exerted solely through men's direct actions, but is reproduced through family relationships, maternal expectations, social judgments, and the internalization of patriarchal norms. At the explanatory level, the article demonstrates that Pirzad's literary discourse, on the one hand, uncovers the mechanisms of naturalization of domination, silence, and female self-suppression, and on the other hand, highlights the hidden possibilities of resistance, self-awareness, and the redefinition of female subjectivity within the fabric of everyday life. The theoretical contribution of this research lies in showing that female agency in these works is represented not as open and radical opposition to the dominant order, but rather in the form of micro-, gradual, and sometimes unstable moments of awareness, doubt, dissatisfaction, and detachment from established roles. Accordingly, Pirzad's fiction can be considered a domain in which the Iranian woman is portrayed not merely as a victim of patriarchal discourse, but as a subject negotiating with tradition, family, body, language, and the limited yet meaningful possibilities of social agency.

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References

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History

  • Receive Date: 21 February 2026
  • Revise Date: 12 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 19 May 2026
  • Publish Date: 05 June 2026

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