From margin to centre: a postcolonial feminist reading of A Thousand Splendid Suns

作者：Xia Zhang, Xiang Xu, Kingsley Obiajulu Umeanowai · 发表于：Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1057/s41599-026-07809-5 · 研究领域：Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East、Gender, Security, and Conflict、Islamic Studies and History

This study presents a postcolonial feminist analysis of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, examining how Afghan women’s lives are shaped by the intersection of gender, class, ethnicity, marriage, and political power. Drawing on postcolonial feminist theory and intersectionality, particularly the work of Spivak and Mohanty, the analysis situates the novel within Afghanistan’s socio-historical context of colonial intervention, militarization, and patriarchal consolidation. Through close textual analysis, the study demonstrates how the novel represents gendered marginalization as a historically produced condition rather than a culturally inherent one, while also depicting women’s constrained yet meaningful forms of agency. Mariam and Laila’s trajectories reveal how solidarity, ethical resistance, and relational agency emerge within structurally oppressive environments. By challenging homogenizing Western feminist narratives and foregrounding context-specific forms of resistance, this study contributes to postcolonial feminist literary scholarship by offering a nuanced framework for analyzing agency under conditions of systemic inequality.