IDENTITY DENIAL IN THE STYLISTIC FEATURES OF TRANSGENDER LANGUAGE

Abstract

Males and females differ due to the differences in their interpretation of the social world. The transgender community use language within the predefined gender binary. This research investigates verbal/non-verbal cues that highlight the dominant gender proclivity of transgender individuals by using Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive theory and Feminist Critical Discourse approach rooted in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).The data analysis will help find out if the transgender (with dominant male or female qualities) use or deliberately use the same kind of verbal and non-verbal language as socially acceptable genders do. The data was collected in the form of unstructured interviews from educated and uneducated transgender people, located in different areas of Lahore. Their voices were recorded and their photographs taken later to be analyzed by investigating the politeness strategies as well as the dominant speech acts associated with each gender. The researchers triangulated their research by conflating their findings with the Urdu/Punjabi stage drama, “Tesri Dhun”(Dec 2016) performed at Alhamra Arts Theatre, Lahore, based on transgender community. The researchers attempted to focus on the dominant gender quality/identity of the transgender individuals. The purpose of this research is to understand the personal identity formation and denial of transgender people with the help of their language and gestures. This helped the researchers understand the different roles they play within their social circles while exercising the same power relations that exist between so-called normal genders. Most of the studies conducted on transgender people pertain to their psychological, biological and social existence. This research is original as very few studies are conducted linguistically internationally and none nationally in the context of transgender community.