Racist Practices as Social Crime: A Critical Study of Jeffrey Archer’s The Prodigal Daughter

Abstract

The present position paper examines racist practices as a social crime in Jeffery Archer’s narrative The Prodigal Daughter (1982) from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Racist practices are found in various forms and their respective manifestations of discourses, particularly of/in the elite social groups that adversely affect the social lives of the inferior and minority groups. Discourse, as representing one's thoughts, actions and, consequently shaping the world-view, has a concomitant and integral role in framing and projecting these practices. Correspondingly, for insightful discussion, the intricacies of racist practices (in the current study) are investigated in connection with Critical Discourse Analysis. Select sections of the Jeffrey Archer’s The Prodigal Daughter reveal and redirect the conflict/crime apropos the current study. Also, the line of reasoning aims at examining racist practices in the narrative by employing the critical means and method of Norman Fairclough’s (1989, 2003) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The paper contributes to understanding the seriousness and sensitivity of the social crime/conflict vis-à-vis the study under discussion, and how such critical discourse may be employed for obtaining progressive transformation insofar as the racist practices are concerned.