الفهرس 
Methodology and ProceduresOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study is a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the representations in social and political discourse. Using Critical Discourse Analysis I analyze here two plays of an Arab American dramatist, Yussef El Gunidi to address the following questions: how the ethnic background of the writer has been utilized to frame the ideological representations in his writing, and how this is depicted in the language used by the characters in the two plays. An important point that is analyzed in this study is power abuse on the part of the powerful characters and the ability of the less powerful characters (Arabs in this case) to resist this power abuse. This study shows how context (social, political, historical and economical) affects the characters mental representations through language. This study attempts to show how one’s ethnic identity influences his\her use of language and clarifies the characteristics of racism by applying van Dijk’s sociocognitive model (2009) of critical discourse analysis (CDA) on two plays by the Egyptian born, Arab-American dramatist, Yussef El Guindi. These plays are El Guindi’s Back of the Throat (2005) and Language Rooms (2010).
This study applied some tools of van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach (2009) to clarify the relations between mind, discursive interaction and society that is affected by dimensions of ethnicity and racism. In addition, power relations through Turn-taking techniques and the discourse of US and THEM are used to prove that the American characters abuse power and control the minds of the Arabs and Muslims; to present their positive sides in front of the negative sides of the Arab characters. The present study attempts to present the ideology of racism and ethnicity by using implicit or indirect meanings, such as implications, conceptual metaphor, presuppositions, allusions, and vagueness. Such meanings are related to underlying beliefs, but not openly, directly or precisely asserted for various contextual reasons, including the well-known ideological objective of the plays, which is questioning real loyalty of an Arab American citizen influenced by his ethnic origins. The results of the study indicate how discourse reflects ideological and ethnic tendencies of the characters of the investigated plays. The characters of the plays represent different ideologies which are reflected in how they produce discourse in dominating societies.
Key words: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), ethnicity, racism, context, mental models, power relations, turn –taking, conceptual metaphor.