Representation of Man and Woman in the Selected Novels ofSidhwa and Singh: A Corpus Stylistic Analysis

Abstract

The present study is a comparative stylistic analysis of two novels Train to Pakistan and The Ice Candy Man by Khuswant Singh (1956) and Bapsi Sidhwa (1988) respectively. The purpose of this study is to explore the depiction of Man and Woman in the selected texts to find out the similarities and differences through which these characters are represented. The study utilizes a mixed method approach which combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. The focus of the research is the analysis of adjectives that have been used with Man and Woman in both the texts. For this purpose, the study utilizes corpus linguistic tool AntConc (3.2.1) to carry out a stylistic analysis of the texts. A total number of 56 adjectives with a total frequency of 107 times were analyzed. The study has found that women are underrepresented in the selected texts as more adjectives are used to represent men. Moreover, both the male and female writers, mostly, portray men positively while women are portrayed negatively. It is expected that this study will open new doors for future researchers and teachers to explore and understand the language of literature from new perspectives.