Transitivity Analysis: A Study of Protagonist’s Identity Shift in Short Story ‘Bingo’ Written in the Perspective of Dhaka Fall 1971

Abstract

Language is the medium for representing identities and ideologies of individuals in a socio-cultural context. This function of language gives the potential to narratives to represent the identity of the character by making use of specific linguistic choices. This paper aims at examining the protagonist's identity shift in Tariq Rehman's short story 'Bingo' written in the socio-political milieu of Dhaka Fall. Halliday's transitivity model (1986) embedded in Systemic Functional Grammar is used as a framework to highlight the actions, thought processes, and relations of the protagonist in changing the socio-political context of 1971 which in turn helps to construe the identity of the individual. The analysis reveals a shift in the protagonist's identity as the incident of the 1971 war and his personal experiences of the war caused a significant change in his character from passive recipient to be the actor of material processes and his increased involvement in mental processes.