Thesis Details

Interdiscursive Constructions, Language, Kamila Shamsie

This qualitative research is an attempt to explore the interdiscursive constructions of language in the novel Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (2017). This is a critical stylistic study (Lesley Jefferies, 2010) of the novel which examines the elements and strategies of interdiscursivity and their functions in the constructed discourses. The study has critically examined interdiscursivity and its linkage with the related terms, like language hybridization, recontextualization and decontextualization. Theoretical framework of the study is based on the views of Norman Fairclough (1992, 1995) on interdiscursivity (constitutive intertextuality), of Ho`s (2011) and Nor Aini Abdul Rahman, Hadina Habil, Hajibah Osman (2017) views on multifarious functions of interdiscursivity. The interdiscursive passages of the novel have been extensively and critically analyzed to answer the designed research questions and meet the research objectives by viably and integrally applying theoretical framework and ten tools of critical stylistics. The study reveals that the novelist has manipulated the strategies of appropriation, hybridization, code-switching, code-mixing, decontextualization and recontextualization for integrally embedding and incorporating the interdiscursive elements of diverse and distinguishing writing/speaking styles (graphological, descriptive, argumentative, narrative, inquisitive, romantic, persuasive, didactic, dialogic), registers, voices, discourses (socio-political, cultural, religious and (social) media discourses) and genres (poetry, mobile text messages, tweets, newspaper, the news) in the constructed larger-scale discourses. Nevertheless, the analysis unveils plural functions of interdiscursive elements and strategies which are functions of description, argumentation, information, creativity, logical connection, persuasion, appropriation, integration, instruction, narration, generation and real-life discourse function. This study may add to enriching the multi-disciplinary field of interdiscursivity.