Exploring Discursive Construction of Queer Identity and its Socio-cultural Challenges in Marriage of a Thousand Lies

Abstract

The researchers in this study use critical stylistic analysis to analyze the purposefully selected passages taken from SJ Sindu’s Marriage of a Thousand Lies emphasizing how queer identities are discursively constructed. The chosen novel presents the story of Lucky, the main character, as her struggle to negotiate her queer identity in the constraints of a traditional Sri Lankan Tamil society that has immigrated to the United States. This research paper presents how Sindu challenges social convention and traditional norms and portrays the difficulties of queer experiences through a thorough analysis of the writer’s linguistic decisions, narrative strategies and theme development. This study also contributes to our understanding of how literature can express and define queer identities in the context of diasporas and cultural settings by closely examining the issues of societal and cultural expectation, personal autonomy and identity development. The researchers use queer theory as theoretical foundation for this study. Furthermore, the researchers use Critical stylistics, a study approach of data analysis that focuses on analyzing a text's linguistic and stylistic elements to comprehend texts' deeper meanings. The purposely selected passages for this study are analyzed in lights of Lesley Jeffries' ten analytical tools. Both primary and secondary sources are used to obtain data for this study.