The language of cultural conflict in Ayad Akhtar's disgraced: A critical discourse analysis

Abstract

This study aims to discover the cultural conflict which arises from the prejudice and hatred towards Muslims and Middle Eastern people in the United States after 9/11 attacks in the play Disgraced. The position of Muslims in Western world has always been a heated debate. Since anti-Muslim prejudice has increased in recent years, especially after 9/11 attacks according to some circles, the issue of Muslims and Middle Eastern people takes a great place in works of art, including drama. American stage has been a platform where the language of this hostile and prejudiced line of contact towards members of other cultures are presented and revealed. Disgraced, a 90-minute, one-act play written by a Pakistani American writer Ayad Akhtar in 2012, is a case in point. It focuses on some socio-cultural themes including discrimination and culture clashes. It centers on a story of people from different backgrounds at a dinner party. Main characters of the story are an American-born Muslim-raised lawyer and his wife, the assimilated nephew of the lawyer, an African-American colleague who is also a lawyer and her husband and also the hidden character of Imam, who is the reference point of all the discussion and conflict. The study argues that the discussion among people seems to turn out to be a cultural and religious one which reveals the existing prejudice and hatred. As the theory and the method of the study, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is applied. Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA), and Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) are also the tools of analysis of the current study. As the result of the study, it is concluded that Middle Eastern descent people in the United States who have Muslim backgrounds struggle to be a part of the new community they live in and reject their Islamic roots. This rejection and assimilation leads them cultural conflicts and clashes. They are in conflict with their own cultural identities and what they really want to be.