A Critical Look at Nafsat al-Masdoor From the perspective of Norman Fairclough's discourse analysis

Critical discourse analysis is a novel approach to discourse analysis and a type of discourse research based on a sociological aspect. As the word ‘critical’ implies, such an analysis is focused on issues of power, dominance, inequality, reproduction, and resistance against the power of texts. The discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough is a prominent theory in this area, which describes, interprets, and explains construction within the framework of language, as well as the discovery of ideological and political characteristics, applications of language, and reproduction of power relations. Nafsah al-Masdoor is a literary work with implicit concepts and underlying layers in addition to a poetic language and language subtleties, which indicates that the Nasavy language has critical discourse analysis capabilities. This descriptive-analytical study aimed to evaluate the underlying and hidden layers of the text (i.e., state of power and ideology in the Mongol era) on descriptive, interpretive, and explanatory levels, such that critical defamiliarization would be established by juxtaposing various ideologies within the text to develop a new approach in this regard. While the discourse of predestination, which is based on complaining about the times, tyranny, and looting of the Mongols, varies at the surface of Nafsah al-Masdoor, Zaidari thoughts, discourse of predestination, and the betrayal of government agents and the lower class are prioritized over tyranny and determinism in the underlying layers of this work.