SOCIAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN MIGRATION NARRATIVE: A TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF MOHSIN HAMID’S EXIT WEST

Abstract

This paper investigates the application of Halliday’s theory of transitivity in the construction of social identity in migration narrative of Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017). The article aims to explain and identify that how the main characters suffer from migration and represented through language used in Exit West. The findings hope to prove that linguistic choices in transitivity plays an important role in building up the identity issues present in the whole novel. From the long list of transitivity process there are three processes selected for this study whose frequency and percentage is find out by using Excel sheets to get data from the text. It will help to know about the frequent use of linguistic choices present in transitivity process from the text. The transitivity processes are analyzed in the light of Laclau and Mouffe’s Political discourse theory (2010). The discussion of results will show how linguistic analysis together with observations about the text enables a better understanding of the migration phenomenon and identity issues with respect to the protagonists.