The Critical Analysis of Dominant Discourse in Jalal Al-Ahmad’s Zan-e-Ziadi Story

The aim of present study was the critical analysis of dominant discourse in Jalal Al-Ahmad’s Zan-e-Ziadi story by using Norman Fairclough’s approach. The studied universe was Zan-e-Ziadi stories collection with the same title by Jalal Al-Ahmad. The research sample included power signs and socio-historical issues of Zan-e-Ziadi story. The design of the research was qualitative and studied by descriptive-analytic method on three levels namely, description, explanation, and analysis. The results of the study in this work of Al-Ahmad indicated that the powerful presence of authoritative and patriarchal discourse in the story and simultaneously in the society of the writer own time and even in the thoughts of the writer himself. As a result, the presence of men gender superiority culture and the persistence of domination and submissiveness had led to women marginalization and passiveness. The important point revealed by the story critical discourse analysis was that the tyrannical mentality was more responsible for the institutionalization of that culture more than tyrannical power. Hence in such a system the story main character (protagonist) was the victim of her own undeveloped thought, passiveness, accepting domination discourse, and institutionalizing it in her more than being defeated by the power and decision of men of her family.