Depiction of Self & Others: A Corpus-Based Study of Personal Pronouns in Autobiographies

Abstract

Autobiographies provide useful insights from the narrator’s personal experiences, feelings, ideas, challenges and struggles. This paper explores the autobiographies of two women politicians, Benazir Ali Bhutto (BB) and Indira Gandhi (IG) from Pakistan and India, with a focus on personal pronouns from a feminist perspective. This study undertakes only three personal pronouns (I, we and they) in order to examine how the selected authors, project their self-image in their autobiographies and how they describe their relationships with others. Through corpus-based discourse analysis (CADS) this research throws new light on the narratives of the female leaders by recounting their portrayal of selves accomplishing different roles and duties in their situational dynamics and constraints. The findings of the study contribute to feminist literature by providing insights into the struggles of ‘accomplished’ women in their respective societies that transcends any geographical, religious and cultural boundaries.