WOMEN, IDENTITY, AND RESISTANCE IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Abstract

The study undertakes a textual analysis of Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) from a postcolonial perspective. The main objective consists of analyzing how the protagonists, Mariam and Laila, navigate and subvert the institutionalized silence and the othering process imposed by patriarchal and political structures. A qualitative analysis has been carried out, taking into consideration the deconstruction of the Western monolithic image of Afghan women as passive victims and the articulation of the subaltern voice. The results show that female identity in the novel is not a fixed essence or biological destiny but a performative work in progress reconstructed through lived experience, choice, and intersectional solidarity. Furthermore, the study considers how the relationship between the two protagonists creates a Third Space for identity negotiation and agency within contexts of oppression. What stands out from the analysis is that the characters’ trajectories function as a counter-narrative, where the transition from inessential others to persons of consequence challenges imaginative geographies and reclaims narrative authority for the subaltern subject.