Ethnicity and Power Relations in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Ethnicity can be considered as the sub-division of Racism by which some people consider themselves as superior and others as inferior. Ethnicity is the social grouping of people who have some common attributes based on geography but they may vary on the basis of culture, language and customs. Ethnicity is a worldwide issue which has a long history and deep roots in various parts of the world including Islamic countries such as Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a multiethnic group and there is major 14 ethnic groups with an approximate division of these ethnic groups into Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek and others. The present study is the study of ethnicity in Afghanistan as highlighted in the novel The Kite Runner (2003) written by an Afghan American writer Khaled Hosseini. This research work critically analyzes the role of language and discourse in identifying social and cultural problems of ethnicity along with power relations, and resultant oppression with reference to this novel. Fairclough’s 3D model of Critical Discourse Analysis (1995) and Van Dijk’s (2008) model of discursive analysis have been applied for this qualitative research. The findings reveal that Khaled Hosseini has used language as a medium for the identification of social problems related to ethnicity between Sunni Pashtuns and Shi’a Hazara, and associated power relations practiced in Afghanistan.