The Representation of Refugees’ Crisis through the Lenses of Edward Said’s Orientalism: A Post-Colonial Study of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
Lamiaa Ahmed Rasheed
English Department-College of Education for Women-Tikrit University
Reem Adnan Hamad
English Department-College of Education for Women-Tikrit University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.5.1.9
Keywords: Refugees, Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, Edward Said, Orientalism
Abstract
Said’s orientalism theory identifies what he calls the false picture of the Orient or the East produced by western scholars, historians, cultural and legal theorists, and colonial rulers, given the West’s primary goal of controlling everything in the East. Therefore, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner has a historic relevance to the post-September events, which some critics see as if Hosseini, as an Afghan writer, is trying to ease the tight seclusion of Afghan immigrants in America. Hosseini is demanding to show a new vision of his country and change Western feelings towards Afghanistan from hatred to sympathy. The Kite Runner introduces itself as a novel that challenges the simplistic opposition between the West and the Middle East by building a bridge of understanding to the other culture, explaining to the West and the rest of the world that Afghanistan is more than rockets and gunshots in relation to Said’s Orientalism. Since Afghanistan is stereotyped as a war zone neglecting its citizens, history, and traditions, Khaled Hosseini comes to change these wrong perceptions, in which this research discusses this matter in detail shedding light on the historical background of Afghanistan’s refugee crisis. He paints a vivid image of refugees and the obstacles they face as they escape to a new country, in relation to the actions of the novel, and a postcolonial reading to analyze the other.
