Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics Vol. 02 No. 01, 2023 ISSN (online): 2834-5207 - 25 - Critical Discourse Analysis of the Short Story “My Son the Fanatic” By Hanif Kureishi Muhammad Farukh ARSLAN 1 ; Hira HAROON 2 , Maryam SHAKEEL 3 1 National University Of Modern Languages Faisalabad Campus, Pakistan farukhgill99@gmail.com 2 Dept. of Applied Linguistics, GCUF, Pakistan hirafarukh16@gmail.com 3 Dept. of Applied Linguistics, GCUF, Pakistan marryamshakeel1999@gmail.com Abstract This research aims to study social power relations in a postcolonial hybrid culture. The purpose is to reveal what lexicons are used to control power. The researcher manually collected words expressing power and analyzed the characters and their languages embodied in Pakistani literature. My Son the Fanatic, a short story by Hanif Kureishi is a story of Parvaiz and his son, who rejects his father's Western secularism and returns to strict Islamic fundamentalism. This study follow Fairclough's critical discourse analysis model for studying the power relationship. Discourse analysis is a very coherent model for analyzing spoken and written language in the text of a short story. The results show that power is a constantly changing phenomenon. However, male dominance is seen in the language and social practices of postcolonial literature. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Short story, Fairclough, Ideology, identity 1. Introduction Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a system of critically analyzing the socio-historical context, power, interpersonal relationships and cultural and political influences. Our social practices and influences determine our language usage. This paper studies the text of Hanif Kureshi’s short story “My Son the Fanatic”, to check the power relationship. The phenomenon of hybridization and imitation is reflected in this short story. It depicts the life story of a taxi driver, Pervaiz. He decided to leave Pakistan and migrate to England to live a decent life. His traumatized childhood was the result of a false education system, especially religious education, which was so rigorous that it created a different perception of religious recognition. Instead, his son's name was Ali. He defied all the customs of his father, who came from Eastern culture and stayed away from religion. The conflict between the perceptions of the two characters prompted the post-colonial analysis in this study. 2. Literature Review Language assists people in forming and maintaining social ties with different humans. It also can be considered as a system for deriving meaning. It allows humans to shape mental photos of facts and make sense of what is going on around and within them. Language is generally used to discuss general matters of the world, both the external world things, events, attributes and so forth, or the internal thoughts, beliefs, emotions and many others, in written or spoken language. Discourse deals with associated invisible sets of concepts, beliefs and values that exist therein social scenarios. A discursive event is an occasion of language use (Fairclough, 1993, p.138). Thus, the discursive event refers to social practice, text production and interpretation. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an approach used for interpreting and analyzing language. This approach is very crucial in research. It studies problems related to social issues in discourse. For example the production, domination and abuse of power. The struggle against inequality is studied and supported (Wodak and Meyer, 2001). Fairclough’s CDA model focuses on the linguistic elements used in a text and analyzes the hidden meanings in the system of social relationships and their hidden effects on this system. Power relationships and inequalities are dealt with mainly by (Faiclough, 2010, Reisigl, 2013; Machin and Mayr, 2012; Wodak, 2009). This paper investigates the social power relations in a post-colonial short story entitled as “My Son the Fanatic”, written by Hanif Kureishi. It was first published in The New Yorker magazine in 1994. The story throws light on the conflicts between Pervaiz, an immigrant father and his son, Ali, born in England. Pervaiz had been assimilating his grownup existence into the British lifestyle and desired that his son will transform too. He is consequently appalled whilst Ali abandons his passion for becoming an accountant. On the other hand, he devotes himself to a radicalized model of Islam and espouses hatred of the West. The father-son relationship gets complicated as time passes, influenced by many factors. Applying Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional Model to the story will help to analyze the practice of inter-discursivity and hegemony in the story and what lexicons are used to deal with social power issues. Also, to study discourse about baspower and ideology (Fairclough, 1992:86). Hanif Kureshi’s “My son the Fanatic” discursively depicts paternalistic power and dominance in hybrid British Pakistani culture, a mix of east and west. This story is about Pakistani Immigrants and the impact of Islamic Fundamentalism. A young boy gets influenced by the Islamic ideology, due to which certain changes in his behavior were observed. Father becomes concerned about this change