Power and the Manipulative Function of Language: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Tracie Chima Utoh’s our Wives have Gone Mad Again

Abstract

The study of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)is a recent field that is concerned with the analysis of texts and spoken words to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias and how these sources are initiated within specific contexts. This paper examines how effective use of language and other discursive features were employed by women in the text- “Our Wives have Gone Mad Again” to dominate and subjugate their male counterparts. Using Norman Fairclough’s theory of CDA and quantitative method of analysis, 20 excerpts, purposively selected based on the discourses between Inyang, Funmi, Mario, Ene, Ifeoma and Odera were analyzed under the auspices of discoursefeatures- discourse opening and closing, turn taking, discourse interruption, speech errors, role sharing, and elicitation in talk. Findings showed the controlling will and use of language by women in power with special focus on how they portray power in different context of discourses, depicting how ideologies of women are used to manipulate men and how women used language to control the actions and thoughts of their husbands in the text.The paper therefore, concludes that effective use of language holds great panacea towards engendering mutual trust and peaceful co-existence on one hand and on the other hand, acts as a tool for power dominance and subjugation.