THE CRISIS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY: READING KHALED HOSSEINI’S NOVEL, AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

Abstract

Multinationalism has been one of the burning concerns in the contemporary South Asian novels. Hosseini as a South Asian Diasporic writer highlights the issues of race, ethnicity, culture and gender in relation to the rhetoric of multinational policies. War, imperialism, poverty and stereotyped ideologies are the major reasons of migration causing multicultural tensions. The paper tries to examine the characters of Nila, Pari and Abdullah in the roller coaster of multiculturalism and diasporic sensibility in the novel And The Mountains Echoed (2013). Dislocation, cultural differences and abandonment have created havoc in the lives of the characters. The novel will be discussed from the theoretical lens of discourse on diaspora by Stuart Hall. Bhabha’s concept of ‘hybridity’ will be discussed to focus on the area of multiculturalism and marginalisation. The characters’ cognisance of impossibility of homecoming leads to reluctance and urge for the preservation of their culture. The paper will help to understand Hosseini’s resistance towards the advancement of multinational capitalism that forces cultural and identity crisis.