Critical Discourse Analysis of  The Death of Bunasr-e Moshkan based on the Approach of Norman Fairclough

Critical discourse analysis is the modern approach to discourse analysis which has been used in a wide range of disciplines in recent decades, including literature and psychology. Although critical discourse analysis approach prioritizes the relationship among language, power, ideology and discourse in political-social issues, it is possible to analyze and interpret the literature of nations in the context of critical discourse analysis and linguistic criticism. Tarikh-e Beyhaqi is among those literary works which can be studied in the framework of this approach. It enables the analyst to reveal the relationship among power, ideology and discourse. Linguistically examining the episode ‘The Death of Bunasr-e Moshkan’, the present study sought to explore the deep and hidden layers of the text, i.e. the status of the relationship between power and ideology in Ghaznavi period. It also aimed at achieving critical defamiliarization through discovering and interpreting different ideologies in the text. In so doing, the writers used Norman Fairclough’s approach in critical discourse analysis and analyzed the text in descriptive, interpretive and expressive layers. In descriptive layer, word selection, characters and metaphorical aspects are emphasized, so that the ideological approach of Beihaghi is expressed. The noticeable features of this part included the cold and lifeless space dominating the episode, the serious state of society at that time, and the sense of freedom-seeking and desperation of the protagonist. All of tÉese features were masterfully indicated in words and expressions of the episode. In interpretive layer, the emotional and mental crisis of that time and the discourse of different groups of people are interpreted through intertextuality. In expressive layer, the contrasts of mental comfort and discomfort, responsibility and irresponsibility, loyalty and betrayal, and friendship and enmity, adds a contrastive excitement to the episode.