Language as a Tool of Power and Control in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood and Zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study examines how gendered power relations and resistance are discursively constructed in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood and Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). While existing feminist scholarship on these novels has extensively explored patriarchy, motherhood, and female agency at thematic and ideological levels, limited attention has been paid to the specific linguistic mechanisms through which power and resistance are produced, normalised, and contested. This study addresses this gap by treating language as analytical data rather than illustrative support. Anchored in Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of CDA, the study analyses selected excerpts that represent recurring interactional contexts such as marriage, authority, and social expectation. At the textual level, the analysis focuses on micro-linguistic features including declarative and imperative structures, modality, evaluative lexis, metaphor, and pronoun use. At the level of discursive practice, it examines interactional patterns, silence, and narrative framing through which male authority is legitimised and female voice is constrained or enabled. These patterns are further interpreted at the level of social practice in relation to patriarchal ideologies within Nigerian socio-cultural contexts. The findings reveal that in The Joys of Motherhood, patriarchal power is largely naturalised through unmodalised declaratives, possessive constructions, and metaphors that restrict female identity to relational and reproductive roles, while resistance is predominantly internalised and narratively contained. In contrast, The Stillborn increasingly foregrounds overt resistance through assertive declaratives, negation, and first-person pronouns that challenge male authority within dialogue. The study demonstrates that patriarchy and resistance in the novels are not merely thematic concerns but are discursively engineered through language, reinforcing the value of CDA for literary analysis.