Gender Power Dynamics on Language Use: A Discursive Critique of ‘The Thousand and One Nights’

Abstract

This research is an endeavor to uncover that power demands as much brain as brawnwithout being gender-oriented.Women are usually considered to be physically as well as discursively weak insocial practices. The investigation aims to explore the power dynamics in The Thousand and One Nights to gender discourses in the selected text.To underscore the nuances or power dynamics as to how they are executed in the social milieu systemically, the researchers have employed Fairclough’s (1989) theory of language and power i.e.,“power behind discourse” and “power in discourse.”The study is exploratory research that helps to demonstrate that power is not limited to somatic or corporeal strength, since the inception of the world, scholars and philosophers have talked about the power of the tongue. The study revealed that the power of speech is more influential for the words have the potency to slither down into one’s soul and, thus, this power is not only limited to a particular gender. This suasion in words yieldsperennialresults and life-shaping in comparison to ephemeral outcomes of physical power.