Cold War in Pakistan: Interdiscursivity in the Proleftist and Pro-Islamist Magazines

Abstract

This article examines the variations in the selected pro-leftist and pro-Islamist magazines’ discursive practices related to the Cold War era/politics in Pakistan. It adopts Critical Discourse Analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework to delve into the discursive practices of the chosen periodicals. The discourses of the leftists and counterdiscourses of the Islamists highlight the ideological polarization as reflected in the in-group support and the out-group condemnation of certain viewpoints. These contrasting viewpoints coalesce around several issues and topics which were selected and used by chosen magazines to take part in the ideological conflict and challenge the rival ideologies in society. Some of the topics the selected magazines harp on are literature, culture, nationalism, Islam, socialism/communism, and democracy/capitalism. Using foregrounding and backgrounding in the topic selection of political magazines the researcher shows how nominated political magazines foregrounded and backgrounded reporting from the in-group and the out-group point of view and how they highlighted or hid reporting from the ingroup and the out-group. The study shows how these magazines used similar topics to advance their discussions in discourse and presented their ideas during Cold War. They also utilized these topics to support and oppose certain ideas as the content of these periodicals is permeated with the ideologies which are glorified and used to renounce the alternative ideologies prevalent in discourse.