Power, Perception, and Language in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral: A CDA Perspective

Abstract

This study presents a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral (1981) with the aim of examining how language constructs identity, negotiates power relations, and reveals underlying belief systems. Adopting an interpretivist research paradigm and an inductive qualitative approach, the study analyzes selected dialogues and narrative segments through Fairclough’s CDA framework, complemented by thematic discourse analysis. Key discourse parameters include identity construction, power and dominance, ideology and belief, politeness strategies, metaphor, framing, and silence. The findings demonstrate that Carver’s minimalist language encodes complex social meanings and traces the narrator’s transformation from emotional detachment and stereotyping to empathy and self-awareness. The analysis reveals how everyday language functions as a powerful social tool that both reflects and reshapes ideologies related to disability, human connection, and perception. This article contributes to discourse-oriented literary studies and offers methodological value for researchers and students, particularly within the Pakistani academic context, where CDA-based literary analysis remains underexplored.