A Critical Discourse Analysis of Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity in Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie

Abstract

Dialectical relationship between language and other elements of social life constitute the bases of Fairclough’s (2003) Model of Critical Discourse Analysis. He combines the textual analysis with the contextual analysis, taking discourse as a form of social practice—linked to other discourses and social practices in more than one way. This paper explores how Shamsie’s discourse in Burnt Shadows is interdiscursive in these specific ways. Fairclough’s model of CDA has been used as a research method. His conceptual framework of interdiscursivity is used to explore the relationships between the text and the context in terms of other texts and actual events of human history and their reflection in different literary discourses. Shamsie links War on Terror with World War II to expose the ideology behind the world power structures and power politics in the world where might is the only right. Life moved full circle from Nagasaki on the fatal day of dropping of the second atomic bomb in World War II to taking mere suspects to Guantanamo Bay with the sole objective to ‘save the Americans’ lives.’ This study shows Shamsie’s insightful knowledge of the world history of colonialism, postcolonialism and neocolonialism and how these apparently different movements are intertwined in more than one way. Her fictional discourse bears many examples of Interdiscursivity.