Critical Discourse Analysis of the Novel “Fish Sleep at Night” Based on Norman Fairclough's Theory

In the novel "Fish Sleep at Night", the language is structured in a way that the three dimensions of Norman Fairclough’s framework including description, interpretation, and explanation could be elaborated. Fairclough's model is a practical tool to analyze the theoretical framework of the present research. This survey examines how critical discourse analysis has emerged in the novel using a descriptive-analytical method. The results show that at description level and upon studying words, which per se reveal admitting the higher position of man plus his power and dominance over woman. Frequent use of taboo words by men, interrupting women's speech, dual interactions, placement of the hero in the kitchen and the house, high frequency of declarative mood to achieve certainty of language, informality of vocabularies, agency of women, metaphoric use of words with religious and cultural identity are among the stylistic characteristics of description in the novel. Considering interpretation and from the viewpoint of intertextuality, the novel is influenced by Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir toward objection on the status of women. In terms of explanation, one can get to the hegemony of patriarchy, men’s power seeking and suppression of women.