(Mis)representation of Third-World Women in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Thousand Splendid Sun:A Postcolonial-feminism Study

Throughout the history, third world women have been portrayed not only in social context of colonized countries but also in literary canon as marginalized and oppressed ones. In search of their own identity and individuality, third world feminists experienced conflicts in regards to their positions and roles in their community. Postcolonial feminism or the ‘Third World feminism’ originated as a critique of mainstreams in the Western feminist theorists, investigating the portrayal of women in the literature and society. The present article selects two novel by Khaled Hosseini throughout which women are presented differently. The first novel, The Kite Runner, provides a story with the noticeable absence of women. Women either play minor, secondary roles or are absent from the story altogether. The novel is largely made up of male characters and portrays women who are unseen, and at the same time bear the burden of war, violence, and deprivation. By contrast, in the second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini depicts women as the main characters around whom the plot is constructed. Women in the latter novel grapple with political imbalance as well as social and sexual oppression in their patriarchal societies and yet they keep up the hope that one day their condition will be redeemed. By investigating through these two novels, the article came to conclusion that whether the women are the protagonists or marginalized characters, their condition would not change until the society is holding its third world beliefs and values high.

کلیدواژه ها:

Postcolonial Feminism ، Culture ، Identity ، Third World Women ، Khalid Hosseini