Storytelling, Memory, and Female Communion in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Abstract

This article explores telling stories and sharing memory as a means of achieving female communion and empowerment in Khaled Hosseini’s 2007 novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Despite the rich scholarship the novel has received, this particular aspect of storytelling among female characters employed as a means of defying patriarchal norms and coping with life struggles (and a traumatic past) has not been given adequate attention. Storytelling and memory have several patterns in the story; the most important one, for the thematic thrust of this article, is female-female stories, i.e. stories and memories shared by women. Early in the novel, Nana tells Mariam many stories that counter the patriarchal perspectives of Jalil, Mariam’s father, and in which she emerges as the victim of cultural oppression yet a resilient woman. Midway through the novel, Mariam and Laila exchange stories, an act which strengthens their bond and trust in each other as victims of oppression and each other’s confidante. In prison, Mariam listens to women’s stories from female inmates and learns to endure, remembering the inductions of her mother. And Laila draws on some stories she heard from her mother, Fariba, for her emotional and intellectual growth. Such stories form the basis of multiple patterns of strengthening female bonds in the narrative. This argument relies on textual evidence as well as feminist/postcolonial theories on writing and storytelling. It works at the intersection of postcolonial feminism and French feminism to discuss the status of women in the novel within relevant social, political, and historical contexts. Hence, the theoretical framework engages crucial themes on female empowerment and resistance and helps support the main argument about storytelling as a means of resisting patriarchy and subverting dominant power structures.