A Study Of The Identity Issue In The Kite Runner From The Perspective OF PostColonialism

The Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini is a well-known contemporary writer. His first novel The Kite Runner was published in 2003. The autobiographical novel is a tale of the experience of an Afghan-American immigrant’s friendship, betrayal and redemption in the first-person perspective.Since its first publication in June 2003, it has received widespread attention and favorable comments. Due to it, Khaled Hosseini became the dark horse in the literary world in recent years. He got the UN humanitarian award in 2006 and now works as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, promoting the rescue work for the refugees.The identity issue is the core issue of post-colonialism.Edward Said revealed how the powerful western scholarism,culture and literature constructed the identity of "the Orient"; Gayatri C. Spivak explored the identity of "bottom class"; Homi K.Bhabha deeply analyzed the cultural identity of the colonizer, the colonized,ethnic groups and diaspora races from the angle of hybrid culture. The phenomena of "other", "subalterns" and "cultural hybrid" in the theory of post-colonialism provide a deeper explanation for an individual’s self-knowledge and identification. It’s helpful for us to understand the complex process of identification and its causes, including race, class and nation.This thesis will explain the identity issue in The Kite Runner from the perspective of post-colonialism. Lacan thinks that the consciousness of one’s identity comes into being based on his relation with the other. The self is produced by the other. The protagonist Amir struggles a lot from the confusion of his identity. The author thinks the reason for his confusion is that he establishes his identity based on the relationship with others and others’ recognition. The thesis will illustrate the reasons for the identity crisis of the protagonist Amir and how he finally establishes his identity based on the relationship with Hassan and his father from Lacan’s theory of "the mirror stage". Spivak points out that the "subalterns" who are at a disadvantage in political, economic and cultural status can not "speak". Therefore, they are always suppressed and exploited. Afghanistan is filled with racial discrimination and the Hazara people are always suppressed and exploited, but they never resist. Similarly, living in a patriarchal society, the Afghan women suffer from unequal treatment but choose to endure. The author thinks the "voicelessness" of Hazaras and Afghan women to suppression and inequality makes them neglected in Afghan society. As a result, they lose their identity.The thesis will analyze the causes of the "voicelessness" of Hazaras and women who live as the "subalterns" in Afghan society and the result of losing identity from Spivak’s theory of "subaltern". Homi Bhabha thinks identity is not unitary and fixed but interlaced and negotiated and the strategy of "cultural hybridity" can help diaspora minorities to establish their identity in the era of globalization. The author thinks the two generations of Afghan immigrants take different strategies on establishing their national cultural identity. Their choices result in different consequences. The thesis will contrast the different choices made by the two generations of Afghan immigrants when establishing their national cultural identity and its consequence from Homi Bhabha’s theory of the Third Space.