A Critical Discourse Analysis of Language and Power in George Bernard Shaw's “Arms and the Man

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is gaining popularity as an interdisciplinary method for understanding different types of discourses. By focusing on a literary discourse example, this study examines the idea of critical discourse analysis, its many dimensions, and techniques that may be utilized for discourse analysis to gain a critical understanding of the chosen text. “Arms and the Man” by George Bernard Shaw which is a political and social play is chosen for this study since it displays various social views and attitudes towards the notion of war and love. It was written after The Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885.The study tries to show the notions of the power of war and love since the play has shown many contrastive ideas of social and political issues. It reflects Shaw's views against war and heroism.  It aims to show the ideological and powerful meaning which is embedded in their discourse. Excerpts,  including both male and female speeches, are chosen randomly to be analyzed. on analyzing the data, the study uses Fairclough's Dialectical Relational Approach “three-dimensional model". Based on the data analysis and the theoretical part, the research shows that the data structure texts are very important for discovering the ideologies. It also shows power domination of women over men as the main theme of the study.