Women's Identity in Fariba Wafi's Collection of Short Stories Even when We Laugh in the Light of Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis

Fariba Wafi is a successful writer who described the family and social life of contemporary Iranian women and bringing them into the real-life stories trying to show their problems. This research is an attempt to investigate Fariba Wafi's collection of short stories Even when We Laugh by following Fairclough's approach to critical discourse analysis. In Fiarclough's approach, a text is checked on three different levels. The three levels are: 1. The description level, which is based on formal analysis, grammar, vocabulary, pronouns, verbs and adverbs modality; 2. The interpretation level of the text, which is based on situational context and analyzes the intertextual factors; and 3. Explanation level that explains the production of texts and the dominant discourse and ideology and power play in the text. Discussing the text of the stories on all three levels reveal the following points: 1. Description and use of the words "wife" and "husband" and frequency indicative verbs and adverbs reflect the author's commitment to the truth of the prepositions of the story 2. The frequency of the pronoun "we" reflects the author's identification with all women. 3. In the interpretation of this collection, she questions the living conditions of women under the influence of feminist writers, such as Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir 4. In the explanation, it is clear that the women's stories depend on the patriarchal power of men. Although in Wafi’s short stories, women live in today's world and apparently are freed from the shackles of traditional society, in reality they are under the dominance of the psychological and male-dominated society and the patriarchic traditions, so that their identity depends on the presence of a man like husband, brother, and the like.