Rim Souissi
University of Sousse, Tunisia
Abstract
Being the first Afghan-American writer who writes in English, Khaled
Hosseini is a relatively new novelist whose literary reputation was established
since his debut novel, The kite Runner (2003). His successive two novels; A
Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) and And the Mountains Echoed (2013) have achieved
the same worldwide recognition and success.
The common thread that links Hosseini’s novels – apart from them being
set in and representative of Afghanistan’s multilayered society and complex
history – is the fact that each character in these fictional works sets out on
a journey that is determined and, to a large extent, linked to the country’s
turbulent historical and social background. The itineraries that the characters
follow intersect with and reveal a lot about the country’s social, political
and historical complex matrices. Though he hopes that his novels evince an
authentic and truthful portrait of his homeland, Hosseini doesn’t claim to take
on the mantle of “a teacher, a sociologist or an anthropologist” who can fully
and adequately teach about Afghanistan, as he states in his interview with
Fanney Kiefer. Nonetheless, his novels feature characters and stories that have
a worldwide resonance thanks to their representational function of a
long-overlooked and relegated country – Afghanistan. My contention is that
Hosseini’s fiction penetrates the cultural boundaries that set a chasm between
the East and the West. In other words, his novels are packed with elements of a
culture so much foreign, yet nonetheless very familiar with its themes and
characters. That’s what makes Hosseini’s works stand out in the so-called
ethnic literature; his rendering of Afghanistan’s culture and history
accessible to foreigners.
Keywords: Afghanistan,
History, Culture, Ethnicity, Homeland, Individual journey, Identity
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