Issues of Gender Roles in
South-Asian literature: Khaled Hosseini’s
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini (1965) first started
his career by dealing Persian Poetry. He has also cited a Farsi translation of
Jack London’s White Fang as a key
influence on his youthful imagination, as well as Persian translations of
novels ranging from Alice in Wonderland
to Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer series.
In his first year of school in the U.S., Khaled Hosseini struggled with
English, but his encounter with John Steinbeck’s Depression-era novel The Grapes of Wrath rekindled his love
for literature, and he began to write stories again, this time in English.
Throughout his medical studies, he continued to write short stories in his
spare time. Hosseini is “very fond memories of [his] childhood” in peaceful
pre-Soviet era Afghanistan, as well as his personal experiences with
Afghanistan’s Hazara people led to the writing of his first novel, The Kite Runner(2003).Following the
success of this book, he has returned to Afghanistan for the first time in
27years and shocked to see the devastation of the war. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007in which he has focused on the
tragic experiences of women in pre-war Afghanistan, during the Soviet
occupation and the civil war, and under the Taliban dictatorship. This novel
debuted at no.1 on The New York Times
bestseller list clearly an entire year. It deals with Man’s inhumanity to
man, systematic victimization of women by patriarchal institutions, Spousal
abuse, Resistance to victimization, power of Education, female Education,
corrupting influence of absolute power i.e, colonial rule over Afghanistan.
Hosseini’s novel is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply
moving story of family and friendship. The pain of exile, humanitarian approach,
redemption and hope is the key to Hosseini’s style.
In this thesis, I will examine the
issues of Gender inequality and destruction of war in Afghanistan-
socio-political scenario. The story of the female characters runs parallel to
the story of Afghanistan as the novel stretches over four decades. I will
specifically focus on the plight of two characters: Mariam and Laila keeping in
view the treatment of their husband and society with them and their resistance
against these societal pressures. I will ask: whether the women in South-Asian regions
are completely suppressed or they have
share roles of gender to survive in a patriarchal society.
Hosseini works hard to illustrate the miserable
life of Mariam and Laila through serf-like treatment and their subjection to
physical and emotional brutality that was allowed, enabled and endorsed. They
lived in Afghanistan during Afghan's tumultuous thirty-year transition from
Soviet occupation to Taliban control and post-Taliban rebuilding. A Thousand
Splendid Sunsdescribes how the patriarchal system of Afghan society has resulted out
the fact that there are a lot of women's rights were diminished. In doing so,
he makes common cause with writers of the same period (Roy, Ali, Shamsie,
Lahiri), who discuss the patriarchal system having advantage of the
Postcolonial Feministic theory. Of particular interest in this connection is
Roy's The
God of Small Things (1997), which gives rise to the patriarchal perspective of feminism in
the light of the physical, psychological and economical violence against women.
By tracing the reception of such feministic agenda in India, I hope to set
Hosseini's work in reflection to widespread public interest in South-Asian
literature.
The
post-colonial feministic treatment of Hosseini's work emphasizes on the need of
examining Gender roles in war like chaotic situation of Afghanistan. The
ultimate power Mariam has in A Thousand Splendid Suns is achieved through the gender solidarity she
creates with Laila. Secondary essays will help me to assess whether style was
associated strongly with gender or topic.
A
significant focus of my investigation will illustrate Hosseini's association
with his native land was the result of his joining UNHCR for helping refugees.
He has adopted meaningful experiences of life through U.N. Refugee Agency. His
inspiration of Persian poetry leads him to this marvelous success of A Thousand
Splendid Suns whose title is borrowed from a 17th century poem of
Saib-e-Tabrizi about 'Kabul', and his citation of Afghan singer Ahmed Zahiris
the basic source of his seminal memories during his stay in Afghanistan. I will
continue to trace the circles of reader not only in South-Asian region but also
in European regime as well.
Finally, Khaled Hosseini's social critique in his depiction of Afghan
women and society must be examined in relation to the larger debates over the
proper role and position of women in Afghan especially in South-Asian society.
Primarily examined through his influences of Persian poets-Hafez, Zahir and
SaibTabrizi, his Persian translations and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of
Wrathand
secondary literature, I will characterize the 'Post-colonial feministic theory'
of the time, evaluating its coherence compositions, tenets, impact and
activity.
As
a whole, this thesis will weave together themes of gender differences, social
class conflicts, religious extremism, female education, domestic abuse, foreigner
invasion, socio-political activism and Resistance as a facet to argue the
significance of A Thousand Splendid Suns in modern South-Asian literature and to capture the
interplay between culture(s) and text(s).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
·
Hosseini, Khakled (2007).A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: ATTS Publications LLC.
·
Roy, Arundati (1997). The God of Small Things.
·
Shamsie, Kamila(2009).Burnt Shadows.
·
Ali, Monica(2003).Bricklane.
·
Namita Singh (2013). Feminism v/s Gender equity: Socio-Political
Activism in Khaled Hosseini'sA Thousand Splendid Suns.Inter. J. Educat. Res. Technol., Vol 4 [2]: 88-92
·
Sthur, Rebecca. "A Thousand Splendid Suns: Sanctuary and Resistance." Critical
Insights: Cultural
Encounters. Ed. Nicholas Birns. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2013.
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