THE POLITICS OF AFGHAN IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE: WAR,DIASPORA, AND HOME

Abstract

Human identity is fundamentally constituted through social interaction, collective belonging, and the sharing of cultural, political, linguistic, religious, and normative frameworks. While collective identities provide individuals and communities with a sense of belonging, continuity, and social cohesion, they may simultaneously generate processes of exclusion, discrimination, and othering when confronted with competing or divergent identities. This study critically examines the construction, fragmentation, and crisis of Afghan identity as represented in Khaled Hosseini’s selected fictional works. Drawing upon poststructuralist deconstruction and the theory of cultural hybridity, the study interrogates the complex historical, political, social, and cultural forces that contribute to the destabilization of individual and collective identities.

Hosseini’s fictions consequently emerge as a significant literary sigh for examining fractured belonging, homelessness, cultural dislocation, and the persistent negotiation of identity within a conflict-ridden and culturally heterogeneous Afghan society.