Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
MIDDLE EAST 11. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC STUDIES, Adana, Türkiye, 13 - 14 Ocak 2026, ss.1-11, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
Literature is
considered to be one of the effective ways to represent cultural images
of people, values, norms, social practices and ideologies,
thus how culture is represented through literary works has been subject to many studies. Within
this context, the objective of this study is
to describe how Indian
culture regarding social
status and power relations is
represented in short stories through the external conflicts
the major characters experience. For
this reason, two short stories were chosen: Miss
Youghal’s Sais by Rudyard Kipling and The Thakur’s Well by
Premchand. While the former story includes a British character the latter one focuses on an Indian character as their major
characters. Nevertheless, the setting for both
stories is
India, elevating
the cultural elements embodied in that geography, particularly social status differences
and power distribution within
the caste system. By following a qualitative research design, analysis of the
characters and the external conflicts they
are involved in
was realized through Fairclough’s
three-step Critical
Discourse Analysis
(CDA): textual, discursive
and social analysis.
Findings
indicate
that while Kipling’s story reinforces the
colonial power structures over Indian characters, Premchand’s story foregrounds the oppression experienced by lower-status characters
within
the Indian caste system. By comparing colonial and indigenous perspectives, the
study demonstrates how conflicts can
serve as evidence of underlying social status and power relations within a
culture.