Diaspora features in Khaled Hosseini’s novels

Ruzmatova Dilnoza Ramatjanovna

Publication date: May 7, 2019 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2650405

Historical Sciences

DIASPORA FEATURES IN KHALED HOSSEINI'S NOVELS

A

Ruzmatova, Dilnoza Ramatjanovna1

1PhD researcher, Uzbekistan State World Languages University, Tashkent city, Kichik Xalqa Yo'li street, quarter G-9a , house 21-a, Tashkent, Uzbekistan E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the three novels "The Kite Runner", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", "And the Mountains Echoed" by Afghan American writer Khaled Hosseini in accordance with the main literary features of the Afghan Diaspora. This historical literature becomes one of the most interesting directions. The authors of the Afghan Diaspora, who create their works in English, distinguish three main features: languages and cultures clash, biographical method application, time and space correlation.

This study is an attempt to reveal the importance of the literary characteristics of novels, considering in particular those mentioned above. This will help readers to decipher the essential Diaspora features of the works of Hosseini, using the three studied signs. In addition to this, the Diaspora and expatriate literature is identified by the researcher on the basis of examples and highlighted by the text analysis of the literary works of the Diaspora.

Keywords: diaspora literature, expatriate literature, Afghan diaspora, Afghanistan, generation, features, languages and cultures clash, biographical method, time and space correlation, text analysis, war.

I. INTRODUCTION

"Diaspora" is a Greek word that means "scatter", "spread", "disperse", used to refer to a group of people who spread from one original country to other countries, or the act of spreading in this way. Moreover, diaspora literature studies the literary works of the authors who have to leave their birthplace to another one and compose their creative works in host countries.

Significant issue connected with the term "diaspora" is the one that concerns the immigrants, workers, refugees have to leave their country for the reasons of war, famine, poverty and pressure. In literature critical studies the understanding of diaspora and expatriate literatures is rather disputable among scholars. The study, first and foremost, is aimed to theorize the major features of diaspora literature by differentiating it from expatriate literature. Denise Helly (2006) attempted to give the notion to the term „diaspora" denoting "a

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population living outside its homeland". Diaspora is a question of geography, an exile from native national borders, and an attempt to negotiate that geographic displacement.

According to Mohammad Ilyas (2018), Expatriate Writings has always been considered as a part of Diaspora Studies and not an independent genre of study, like other forms of studies such as Black Studies, African American Studies, or Ethnic Studies. The need to identify it as a distinct form of writing is felt because of the "marginalization" or "hyphenated" existence of those immigrants and expatriates who have narrated their traumatic experiences of multiple racial discrimination, ethnicity, nostalgia, alienation and like in their writings. The terms "diaspora" and "expatriate" have been used and accepted as synonyms concerning hybridity, assimilation, acculturation or deculturation. However, they do not mean the same. The diasporic writings portray a diaspora, especially in the postcolonial era, which is often constituted by such immigrant writers that ultimately do not return to their native homeland but instead create a new sort of life in a new homeland. Expatriates, on the other hand, tend to eventually return, as they still carry socio-cultural traces of their old life, reflected in their language and reflections. (Ilyas, 2018)

In diaspora literature, the writers from post-colonial countries move to America and Europe. Searching for home, identity, freedom Muslim writers frequently change their places and appear in the Western countries. M.M. Raihanah et al. (2014) reported that the Muslim writers discussed problematize the issue of identity of Muslims in the world today given their diverse landscapes they now inhabit and social/cultural contestations that are constantly being negotiated. Muslim identity in narrative showcases the multitude of faces and shades of being a Muslim in today's globalized world given the constraints and uncertainties that Muslims face. Each represents a particular and distinct voice from a group of established Muslim writers whose works either hark to the western construction of the Muslim, and in so doing, fail to re-represent the identity of Muslims, or challenges one-dimensional construction of being Muslims that they themselves experience.

What stands out in this issue is that Afghan diaspora writers have a significant place among Muslim authors of diaspora in Europe and America. Afghan diaspora occurred between 1971-2001 to American and European countries through Iran and Pakistan. All classes of the society participated in this migration from upper class to lower class including ministers, diplomats, generals, professors, politicians ... and black workers. In 2001-2005 most of the Afghan immigrants returned to their country, however in the list of world immigrants there is a reasonable portion belonging to this nation's people. The majority of them live and work in Pakistan, Germany, Holland, Russia, Canada and the USA. The main problem for Afghan immigrants was a language barrier as they could not communicate in English or other European languages.

A good example of Diaspora literature can be found in Khaled Hosseini's literary career and the writer consciously applies the functions of this type of fiction to his three novels. As is sited diaspora literature involves an idea of a homeland, a place from where the displacement occurs and narratives of harsh journeys undertaken on account of economic compulsions. Basically diaspora is a minority community living in exile. Hosseini's personal and literary responsibility is telling others about Afghanistan's culture, traditions, people and what the most deliberated is the truth about his nation and country (Ruzmatova, 2018). Human relations play significant role in Hosseini's works and his characters depict the objective picture of Afghanistan and Afghan diaspora. In addition to this, he contributed the initial step to the world of Afghan diaspora literature. Rachel Blumenthal (2012) examined the texts of Islamic diasporic writers Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Azar Nafisi and Khaled Hosseini to seek relief in their conflicted status as "Westerners" and Muslims, or ex-Muslims, or ex-citizens of Islamic nations and discussed where is ideal home located for the authors in the East or in the West.

This study has shown that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Azar Nafisi and Khaled Hosseini document more than just the physical journey from one geography to another, however.

They traverse national boundaries, but also ideological boundaries. Their texts uncover new ideological homelands, or intellectual and moral regions in which they locate evolving political, theological, and often social beliefs (Blumenthal, 2012).

People who left Afghanistan between 1971 and 2001 are called the "first generation" while their children are accepted as the "second generation". Being totally different from their parents, children can speak and write fluently in English and even at home they use the mixture language details for communication as English-Dari or English-Pashtun. Whilst this generation couldn't accept themselves as Afghan, American or European, their

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compatriots in Afghanistan name them just "Afghan-e khareejeeh" (foreign Afghan) (Sadat, 2006). Cultural crisis for Afghan immigrants is that their children are growing up being unaware of their country's heritage. Great poets Navoi, Jamiy were born in their motherland and contemporary foreign Afghans are not able to read Persian literary works - this seems to be the most crucial degradation. September 11, 2001 events made people think terrorists came from the afghan nation, although to bind this tragedy with the whole nation is an immense mistake of humankind. Afghan born American writer Khaled Hosseini set a purpose to confirm that Afghans are the creators and participants of sensational civilization: "Too often stories about Afghanistan center around the various wars, the opium trade, and the war on terrorism. Precious little is said about the Afghan people themselves, their culture, their traditions, how they lived in their country and how they manage abroad as exiles ... Fiction is a wonderful medium to convey such things. And I hope that the book helps humanize the Afghan people and put a personal face to what has happened there."(Sadat, 2006)

Mir Hekmatullah Sadat (2006) identified Afghan diaspora literature characteristics focusing on the novel "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini who writes in English and three short story collections "Dar Goriz Gom Mishavim" ("In Flight We Disappear), "Nowroz Faqat Dar Kabul Ba Safa Ast" (New Year's is Only Genuine in Kabul), "Inan Danmark" (This is Denmark) by Muhammad Asef Soltanzadeh who creates his works in Persian. Sadat (2006) divided Afghan diaspora writers into three categories:

1) those writers born in Afghanistan and who migrated in their mid-lives;

2) those writers born in Afghanistan but who migrated at young ages;

3) those writers born outside Afghanistan.

He referred Akram Osman, Rahnaward Zariyab, Spozmai Zariyab to the first category; Khaled Hosseini, Muhammad Hussein Muhammadi, Atiq Rahimi, Asef Soltanzadeh to the second category and unfortunately, could not point the representatives for the third category. The main factor might be that today's generations are being brought up with the absence of Afghan culture and language. Sadat classified the writers concerning time and place issues, I consider language features as the main phenomenon and group the Afghan diaspora literature writers as following:

- writers who create their works in Persian (Persian-Pashtun and Persian-Dari) ;

- writers who create their works in English.

Akram Osman ("Our Alley", "Real Men Keep Their Word: Tales from Kabul, Afghanistan"), Rahnaward Zariab (" Qalandar Nama", "The Beauty Sleeping under Earth", "The Purse Thief", "Shama-e-dar shabistane", "Gulnar-o-abina"), Spojmai Zariab ("The man from Kabul", Babylon reconquered", "When Cats Turn Human"), Atiq Rahimi ("Earth and Ashes", "The Patience Stone"), Asef Soltanzadeh ("Inan Denmark", "Dar Goriz Gom Mishawim", "Nowroz Faqat Dar Kabul Ba Safa Ast") belong to the first group and Khaled Hosseini ("The Kite Runner", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", "The Kite Runner", "And the Mountains Echoed"), Mir Tamim Ansary ("West of Kabul, East of New York", "Road Trips, Becoming an American in the Vapor Trail of the Sixties", "Games without Rules: the Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan"), Farooka Gauhary - first Afghan-American female writer ("An Afghan Woman's Odyssey", "Searching for Saleem"), Said Hyder Akbar ("Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story"), Mariam Qudrat Aseel ("Torn between Two Cultures: an Afghan American Woman Speaks out"), Nilofar Pazira ("A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan"), Masuda Sultan ("My War at Home") represent the second group writers. It must be mentioned that most of the books written in English were translated into Persian and other Asian countries languages, and those created in Persian are interpreted into English and other European languages. Taking into consideration common features of other diaspora writers' works common features worldwide, three major features of diaspora literature are specified in this research: languages and cultures clash, biographical method application, time and space correlation. This research is also an attempt to highlight the text analysis of the novels by Hosseini based on Diaspora literature features. This study will invite researchers to explore new horizons of Diaspora literature characteristics in perceiving Diaspora fictional works. It will motivate related researches in the field of Asian-American and Asian-European literatures, especially the literary career of Afghan diaspora writers creating their works in English or Persian.

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II. METHODOLOGY

In the present analysis, the research problem is to investigate how the major diaspora literature features have been employed to represent Khaled Hosseini's literary image as a writer. The data, collected from the detailed analysis of the texts of three Hosseini's novels "The Kite Runner", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", "And the Mountains Echoed" to answer helped the questions related to languages and cultures clash, biographical method application, time and space correlation. They can be the major features of Diaspora literature on the example of this writer.

As given in literature critical studies sources, the word "expatriate" is also used for the writers who create their works in diaspora literature. However, most of the time expatriate writers do not demonstrate their fully positive approach towards their birthplace. The term "Expatriation" refers to individuals or communities who settle down in a country different from the one they were born in; for diverse reasons like a sense of dissatisfaction, an uneasy detachment, a conflict or a protest with the conditions in the home country. Expatriation is also often called an exile or denaturalization or renunciation of allegiance by and of one's country (Ilyas, 2018). In American literature after the WWI, the writers belong to the generation that left their country for Europe in search of identity, mutual understanding and individuality, and mainly freedom in soul and body as well. Some of them participated in the war, some not. They are T.S. Eliot, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Richard Wright, Ezra Pound, Langston Hughes, Irwin Shaw, James Jones, James Baldwin and many more from their birth place mostly into another continent. They could not live in the birthplace since their pre-war perception was totally different from the post-war. Most of the expatriates congregated in Paris, France, where they lived for some time or even for the rest of their lives. In contrast to expatriate authors, diaspora writers prefer the flourishment of two geographical places where they have been born and where they are living and working now. The writers miss their country and wish the peace for their nation; moreover they are thankful for the state which provides them with the living place and work. Diaspora writers frequently consume both countries' language and culture patterns and as a result a "hybrid" process appeares.

Not only considering Afghan Diaspora literature, but including the issues discussed in other diaspora works the major three features of this literature, mentioned above were identified. This research paper was not intended to find the differences and similarities or the relationship between expatriate and diaspora literature or the writers who create their works in English or their mother tongues. Through this study three major features of diaspora literature have been investigated and according to these characteristics Khaled Hosseini's novels have been analyzed.

The Procedure of the Research

According to investigated major diaspora literature features, the analysis of Hosseini's novels has been undertaken at the following three levels:

Languages and cultures clash

Biographical method application

Time and Space correlation

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III. DISCUSSION

The objective of the present analysis was to identify the role of diaspora literature and its characteristics in Khaled Hosseini's novels by using suggested three major features of diaspora literature.

Languages and cultures clash

Languages and cultures clash is a basic feature of diaspora literature. Writers moving from one geographical place into another possess the belongings of the countries where they have been born, where they have been and where they are living now. In the novels (written in English), the diaspora authors use foreign words giving translations or definitions or the cultural backgrounds and foregrounds of the countries depicted in their works. This phenomenon increases the possibility of belief in the fictions and a reader can feel the real atmosphere of this or that nation.

In his three novels Khaled Hosseini illustrates European thinking, American way of life influenced the Afghan diaspora and Afghans are trying to behave as them. In diaspora literature writers could give the sense of nation temperament, geographical location, evaluation stage and creative traditions of the place where they were born. National colorings play a significant role in writing, reading and accepting the works of diaspora literature axiologically. There is a notable difference between the literature of the West and the East, that is, for the Western literature it is important what to write whilst, for the Eastern literature - how to write.

In terms of realistic principles, nationality enables to depict the character realistically and individually, in addition to this nationality is connected with internationality as it demands to show inner and outer cultural background of the personages. The main factors to demonstrate the nationality can be living conditions, traditions, manners and behavior since they prove not only each nation, but each representative of each nation is totally different from each other. Natural depictions are very important in the Western literature though fictional issues, exaggerations, decorativeness, keen and sensitive taste, formalism can be frequently found in the Eastern literature. However, in both literatures there are distinctive exotic characteristics.

Languages and cultures clash in "The Kite Runner"

Though Khaled Hosseini writes his fictions in English, as an afghan he commonly adds into his text Persian, Arabian, Turkic words, phrases such as: Allah-u-akbar, naan, agha, saratan, zakat, hadj, namaz, qiyamat, chapandaz, mast, padar, bachem, zendagi migzara, Baba jan, sherjangi (Hosseini, 2003). Another incredible part of Hosseini's works is he quoted Persian and Turkic poets' poems in his text, this attitude enables the readers to be aware of Asian culture.

How seamless seemed love and then came trouble (Hafez) (Hosseini, 2003).

Khaled Hosseini, as a representative of his nation and culture, proudly estimates tendencies belonging to Afghanistan, whereas he is really dissatisfied with the majority of Afghans who are still busy with rumors (hawaza-ha) and gossips (ghaibat kardan) (Sadat, 2006) even in America discussing whose daughter is dating with an American boy. Indifference and disconnectedness are the major reasons for the destruction of Afghanistan today. "The only thing that flowed more than tea in those aisles was Afghan gossip. The flea market was where you sipped green tea with almond kolchas, and learned whose daughter had broken off an engagement and run off with her American boyfriend, who used to be Parchami - a communist - in Kabul, and who had bought a house under-the-table money while still on welfare. Tea, Politics, and Scandal, the ingredients of an Afghan Sunday at the flea market." (Hosseini, 2003)

Exaggeration is another Afghan habit, used to show that a talented author can put it into his works skillfully and increase Afghan tone of the work one level upper. "If the story had been about anyone else, it would have been dismissed as laaf, that Afghan tendency to exaggerate - sadly, almost a national affliction; if someone bragged that his son was a doctor, chances were the kid had once passed a biology test in high school." (Hosseini, 2003).

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Another interesting fact is that in his novels Khosseini could reveal the afghan culture through pre-war period education in Afganistan. "In school, we used to play a game called Sherjangi, or "Battle of the Poems". The Farsi teacher moderated it and it went something like this: You recited a verse from a poem and your opponent had sixty seconds to reply with a verse that began with the same letter that ended yours. Everyone in my class wanted on their team, because by the time I was eleven, I could recite dozens of verses from Khayyam, Hafez, or Rumi's famous Masnawi." (Hosseini, 2003) However, in a parallel way with Eastern poets, Hosseini demonstrates his character Amir being in love with the Western literature. "I read everything, Rumi, Hafez, Saadi, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Ian Fleming" (Hosseini, 2003).

The title of the novel with the word "kite" symbolizes friendship, freedom and the kite flying described a well-known sport in Afghanistan. "Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. And if you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. ...In Kabul, fighting kites was a little like going to war. ... The kite-fighting tournament was an old winter tradition in Afghansitan. It started early in the morning on the day of the contest and didn't end until only the winning kite flew in the sky - I remember one year the tournament outlasted daylight. People gathered on sidewalks and roofs to cheer for their kids. The streets filled with kite fighters, jerking and tugging on their lines, squinting up to the sky, trying to gain position to cut the opponent's line. Every kite fighter had an assistant - in my case, Hassan - who held the spool and fed the line." (Hosseini, 2003). The writer displays the rules of kite flying in detail and readers understand the significance of it in pre-Taliban Afghanistan.

Languages and cultures clash in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

The novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns" goes to Afghaniyat, nation perception with its very title. As mentioned above, most of Afghan population had to leave their country because of war, poverty, depression and Hosseini's fictional characters as well. First the writer wanted to depict his personages' sadness who are leaving Kabul with the help of lines from "Kabul" by Saib-e-Tabrizi and used the Josephine Barry Davis' translation of this poem. At the end of this process, Hosseini could find an appropriate title to his novel from Tabrizi's poem.

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

The writer skillfully reveals the Afghan manner consuming Dari and Pashtun dialects, differing the way of conversation from one city into another: "Kabul was far more crowded than the little that Mariam had seen of Herat. There were fewer trees and fewer garis pulled by horses, but more cars, taller buildings, more traffic lights and more paved roads. And everywhere Mariam heard the city's peculiar dialect: "Dear" was jon instead of jo, "sister" became hamshira instead of hamshireh, and so on." (Hosseini, 2007)

Historical facts and intertextuality make a reliable level of the text; it improves the objective outlook towards Afghanistan. Once Jalil described Herat to his daughter Mariam as the cradle of Persian culture, the home of writers, painters, and Sufis. "You couldn't stretch a leg here without poking a poet in the ass" he laughed (Hosseini, 2007). It was great poet Alisher Navoi's joke to Binoi, another contemporary poet to prove that a lot of famous people were born in Herat. Jalil told the story of Queen Gauhar Shad, who raised the famous minarets as her loving ode to Herat back in the fifteenth century. He described to her the green wheat fields of herat, the orchards, the vines pregnant with plump grapes, the city's crowded, vaulted bazaars. There is a pistachio tree," Jalil said one day, "and beneath, it Mariam jo, is buried none other than the great poet Jami." He leaned in and whispered, "Jami lived over five hundred years ago." (Hosseini, 2007)

The next approachable point of the novel is the writer's amusingly depictions of falling in love with the film "Titanic" and the whole Rasheed's family even children watch the movie repeatedly learning by heart the passages of it. "That summer, Titanic fever gripped Kabul. People smuggled pirated copies of the film from Pakistan - sometimes in their underwear. After curfew, every one locked their doors, turned out the lights, turned down the volume, and reaped tears for Jack and Rose and the passengers of the doomed ship". Poor people feel sorry for fictional characters, despite themselves living in a bombing place and witnessing death every day in the neighborhood. "If there was electrical power, Mariam and Laila and the children watched it too.

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A dozen times or more, they unearthed the TV from behind the toolshed, late at night, with the lights out quilts pinned over the windows. At the Kabul River vendors moved into the parched riverbed. Soon, from the river's sunbaked hollows, it was possible to buy Titanic carpets, and Titanic cloth, from bolts arranged in wheelbarrows. There was Titanic deodorant, Titanic toothpaste, Titanic perfume, Titanicpakora, even Titanic burqas. A particularly persistent beggar began calling himself "Titanic beggar". "Titanic city" was born." According to the writer, Kabul is buried and a "new" city is born called "Titanic". Kabul does not exist anymore. The sound and word gaming here used by Hosseini are "Titanic" city - "Taliban" city. After the arrival of the Taliban, afghan people lost their afghaniyat, culture and cities as well.

Language and culture of Afghanistan found an irreplaceable fictional place in the text of the novel. Being different from other creative works by Hosseini, as European or American couple Laila and Tariq adore each other, dare to break the boundaries of restriction and struggle for their love. It witnesses that Hosseini added the mixture of understanding in the perception of love even in Afghanistan, where women are not allowed even to open their faces.

Languages and cultures clash in "And the Mountains Echoed"

The thirteenth century poet Jelaluddin Rumi's lines"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there" serve as an epigraph to the novel "And the Mountains Echoed" and from the very beginning it reminds the Orientalism of the work. In terms of the structure, the novel starts with the tale about "div" -"giant creature" who steals children from Maidan Sabz (Field of Green). This tale indicates that someone will lose or take children in the novel and the writer manages to give the hints properly to his readers. The tale itself is very Eastern even in the names of people and places.

Reading the novel one can notice that Hosseini presented his personages' life globally. Here both Afghan and European cultures are consumed equally, in some passages it is too difficult to imagine how Afghan people, mainly women can behave as the author illustrated them. Nila Wahdati symbolizes an uncontrollable modern woman in the Afghan society, moreover she is a striking character of the novel, and even she doesn't obey the rules stated by her father who is a very honorable person in Afghanistan of that time. Her clothes, manners and poems are not suitable to Muslim community; understanding the efforts of his character it is the author's finding to replace his personage from Afghanistan into France. Nila can depict both the Western and the Eastern cultures. Why and how the Eastern culture? Through this character, it is obvious what is acceptable and what is not in Afghanistan. Pari is her foster-daughter and the only gift from Afghanistan that she is able to bring to France. It is easily understood that if people live somewhere, the culture of this place affected them. Pari is brought up with the absence of Afghan traditions, she does not assimilate what is Afghaniyat itself, she sees herself someone as European. But she has an Afghan name "Pari" that means "angel".

Being different from their fellow writers, diaspora literature authors' works indicate the reasonable usage of at least two or three language items and different countries' cultural patterns effectively in their fictions.

Biographical method application

Most writers in the process of writing are totally different from the writers who completed their work. Moreover, they cannot replace each other. The biographical method is connected with a portrait of a writer as the principal tool of literary criticism. As Uzbek well-known writer Abdulla Kodiry stated "One can understand and imagine the writer's personality even though they have never met, since the authors write their character and their mood". (Karim, 2016)

Another considerable issue is that, the biographical method is not investigating only autobiography of writers, it studies the events that caused to create a work, a clear example for this can be "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. We all know September 11, 2001 events and it is the reason why the author decided to publish his books as he intended to prove that Afghans also wanted to have peace even more than other nations. They are not terrorists and their women put the education to the first place. Hence, they are innocent people who are turned the victims of some terror attacks. Hosseini is never tired of repeating the same reasons for his creativity that is his unlucky nation and his poor country.

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Biographical method application in "The Kite Runner"

Biographical method used by Hosseini to depict his personages can be the reflection of his personal life. Amir in "The Kite Runner" carries the real-life moments of the author himself and considering this we can call this work a semi-autobiographical novel. Amir and Hosseini's father were both respected and functionary people in the Afghan society and as his characters in the novel his own family moved to America as well. The most attentive similarity - both he and his personage have the responsibility to write about their nation and country:

"Amir is going to be a great writer", Baba said. ...

"Mashallah," General Taheri said. "Will you be writing about our country, history perhaps? Economics?"

"I write fiction", I said ...

"Ah, a storyteller," the general said. "Well, people need stories to divert them at difficult times like this." (Hosseini, 2003)

One more biographical element can be observed in female personages and Khosseini's mother herself -three of them were teachers.

Amir in "The Kite Runner": "When people scoffed that would never marry well - after all, he was not of royal blood - he wedded my mother, Sofia Akrami, a highly educated woman universally regarded as one of Kabul's most respected, beautiful, and virtuous ladies. And not only did she teach classic Farsi literature at the university, she was a descendent of the royal family, a fact that my father playfully rubbed in the skeptics' faces by referring to her as "my princess." (Hosseini, 2003)

Soraya - Amir's wife: "When we lived in Virginia, I became ESL certified and now I teach at the public library one night a week. My mother (Jamila Taheri) was a teacher too, she taught Farsi and history at Zarghoona High School for girls in Kabul." (Hosseini, 2003). As I mentioned above Khaled Hosseini's mother taught Farsi and history at a girl's high school in Kabul (Stuhr, 2009). Sadat's (2006) worry on "second generation" might find its solution through Hosseini's novels since he reminds Farsi and history several times, it seems the code of the author that the present generation must be aware of its language, literature and history. Absolutely, the interest in the Farsi might appeare if the reader saw the information in different parts of his novels. According to the theory of literature, repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. The author's message is sent to the readers, mainly Afghans, that are the second generation who live outside Afghanistan.

Biographical method in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

In 2003 Khaled Hosseini travelled to Afghanistan as a tourist once he described as Amir in "The Kite Runner" and this visit gave a great pregnancy to his "A Thousand Splendid Suns". He met a lot of beggar-women with three, four, five and even six children in the streets near the walls. He listened to the stories of Afghan women and noticed their brevity stood stronger than male beings. It can be the point and hint to the writer to write a fiction about Afghan women. However, none of these women whom Hosseini has met perform the values of Mariam and Laila. As mentioned above, the biographical method studies not only autobiographical characteristics of the author, though looks through the events happened in his life and had impact on his works. This arrival in Afghanistan can be the reason for the birth of this novel.

As usually in "The Kite Runner" Hosseini again prefers the profession of a Farsi teacher for his main character Laila. Being a Farsi teacher is prolonged by the writer and it serves the role of an alarm to the "second generation", brought up without the language and culture of their country. "Laila posses beneath the sign and enters the classroom, the children are taking their seats, flipping notebooks open, chattering - Aziza is talking to a girl in the adjacent row. A paper airplane floats across the room in a high arc. Someone tosses it back. "Open your Farsi books, children," Laila says, dropping her own books on her desk." ( Hosseini, 2007) Hosseini's purpose representing his female characters mostly in the position of Farsi teachers, firstly, thinking about his country's cultural heritage and secondly he wants to see Afghan women and girls educated as his fictional personages.

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IV. RESULTS

The events, happened in Afghanistan, are always of a particular concern for Hosseini's works. In general he tries to give the general and perspective image of his country. Not only in "And the Mountains Echoed" but in all his novels, the writer informs that Afghan children have no childhood, since for their parents their existence is more important. This existence doesn't matter where occurs for them -anywhere where their children can breathe. Initially, poverty and war destroy the relationships in the families, children without parents, parents without children, sisters or brothers without siblings emerged in Afghanistan.

Poor little girl Pari is the victim of this novel since she was sold for the sum of money, enough to heat the family for coming winter. Rich woman Nila Wahdati exchanges Pari for the money and as a result a little girl forgets her personality, her background and even her kind brother Abdullah. It is time to remember the tale at the beginning of the novel, parents in Afghanistan are ready to give their children to "divs" who can support them giving and live with them in peace for the rest of the life. In a fairy tale Baba Ayub loses his memory and the way to get to his child back. As treatment for Afghan parents who lose or give their children for the sake of peace or money is just forgetting them as Baba Ayub. In this tale, not only Qais - the son of Baba Ayub, but Baba Ayub himself also forgets his son with the help of the liquid that "div" gives him. "The div pulled the curtains open. Behind it was a glass window. Through the window, Baba Ayub looked down on an enormous garden. ... But what truly brought Baba Ayub to his knees was the sight of children running and playing happily in the garden. ... There he was! His son Qais, alive and more than well. He had grown in height, and his hair was longer than Baba Ayub remembered. He wore a beautiful white shirt over handsome trousers. He laughed happily as he ran after a pair of comrades." (Hosseini, 2013) Many days later Baba Ayub returned home and the villagers ask the questions where he had gone, what he had seen and what had happened to him. But he cannot answer as he cannot remember anything. "He didn't remember the secret garden, the children, and most of all, he didn't remember seeing his son Qais playing among the trees with his friends. In fact, when someone mentioned Qais's name, Baba Ayub blinked with puzzlement. Who? he said. He didn't recall that he had ever had a son named Qais." (Hosseini, 2013).

Here Hosseini uses biographical method to show the reality between Afghan children and their parents in present Afghanistan.

Time and Space Correlation

The next feature of diaspora literature is time and space correlation. As given in the works all Afghan diaspora people miss their country, in addition to this patriotism is the thing to unite them even out of the country. Time and space configurations are used as the chronotope in literary theory, Russian scholar M. M. Bakhtin consumed it as a central element in his theory of meaning in language and literature.

Time and Space Correlation in "The Kite Runner"

Khaled Hosseini depicts three major time lines in his novels: pre-war, in- war and post-war Afghanistan including 30-40 years. In terms of history, the writer could fill in the gaps in Afghanistan history on Hazaras. Hazaras is an ethnic group pressured by Pashtuns who acclaim themselves as upper class of the society. The main religious difference between them is that Pashtuns are Sunnis while Hazaras are Shi'as. Moreoever, there is a class distinction, Hazaras are accostemed to be servants at Pashtuns' homes. The protagonist of "The Kite Runner" Amir noticed: ".I found one of my mother's old history. It was written by an Iranian named Khorami. I blew the dust off it, sneaked it into bed with me that night, and was stunned to find an entire chapter on Hazara history. An entire chapter dedicated to Hassan's people! In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. It said the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns had "quelled them with unspeakable violence." The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi'a. The book said a lot of things I didn't know, things my teachers hadn't mentioned. (Hosseini, 2003)

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Time and Space Correlation in "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Hosseini's novels are very important giving historical facts about Afghanistan; especially during pre-in Taliban period the natural image of this country is depicted and shown with real lines. When the Taliban came, the people welcomed them as seeing peace with their arrival. Unfortunately, they understood the truth a bit later hearing the rules set by the Taliban. They grouped the rules separately for men and women; call their country as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The laws that Afghan people have to obey:

All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is a prayer time and someone is caught doing something different, he/she will be beaten;

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All men will grow their beards and all boys will wear turbans;

Singing, dancing, playing cards, playing chess, gambling, kite flying, writing books, watching films, painting pictures are forbidden;

All women will stay inside home at all times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly in the streets. If they go outside, they must be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative. If they are caught alone in the street, they will be beaten and sent home;

All women will not show their face and cover with burqa when outside. If they don't, they will be severely beaten;

Cosmetics and jewelry are forbidden;

All women will not wear charming clothes, speak unless spoken to, make eye contact with men, laugh in public (If they do, they will be beaten), paint their nails (If they do, they will lose a finger);

Girls are forbidden attending schools and women from working;

If women are found guilty of adultery, they will be stoned to death.

Time and Space Correlation in "And the Mountains Echoed"

The most important space for Hosseini's fiction is Afghanistan, yet his characters are not stable and move from their birth place to other countries. On the way, together with his personages the author tried to pick national colorings of this or that country. In "And the Mountain Echoed" the main character's name is "Pari" and when she is in France, French people cognate her name as their capital city "Paris". That times Pari and her mother explain that it is not "Paris", it means "angel" in their mother tongue.

Different places with exact street names located in the author's works determine the reality of his novels. Migration from Afghanistan into America and Europe is a difficult and adorable task for his fictional characters whereas they wish to come back and live as before in their country.

The major features of diaspora literature are sometimes intermingled in the works written with this tendency like time and space correlation can come together with languages and cultures clash: "The Hindi kid would soon learn what the British learned earlier in the century, and what the Russians would eventually learn by the late 1980s: that Afghans are an independent people. Afghans cherish custom but abhor rules. And so it was with kite fighting. The rules were simple: No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck." (Hosseini, 2003)

V. CONCLUSION

The objective of the present study was to identify the role of diaspora literature including its three major features in Khaled Hosseini's novels "The Kite Runner", "A Thousand Splendid Suns", "And The Mountain Echoed". The detailed analysis of the texts of the novels, both at the macro level and the micro level, revealed that three major features of diaspora literature: languages and cultures clash, biographical method application, time and space correlation played significant role in the writer's literary career. As a next step, similarities and

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dissimilarities or relationship between Afghan diaspora writers those who write in English and in Persian must be explored to notice whether the three major features of diaspora literature mentioned above can have the importance as in Hosseini's novels. One of the issues that emerges from these findings is that Hosseini's works belong to diaspora literature, not to expatriation.

This research will assist to better understand Hosseini's novels in terms of diaspora literature. Hence, nostalgia seemed to be the reasonable element of Hosseini's novels considering diaspora literature features. One undeniable fact to create worldwide accepted books by Hosseini is that war, poverty, terror attacks in Afghanistan. The writer himself also astonished that people do not prefer reading happy stories of others.

REFERENCE LIST

Ба^одир Карим. (2016) Ру^ият алифбоси. Ташкент: Гафур Гулом номидаги нашриёт-матбаа ижодий уйи. 354 p.

Denise Helly (2006) "Diaspora: History of an Idea," in Muslim Diaspora: Gender, Culture, and Identity, ed. Haideh Moghissi. New York: Routledge. (in English).

Guiyou Huang. (2009) The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian and American Literature. London: Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut. 1197 p. (in English).

Khaled Hosseini. (2003) The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books. 372 p. (in English).

Khaled Hosseini. (2007) A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead Books. 384 p. (in English).

Khaled Hosseini. (2008) A thousand shining suns. Phantom Press. Pp. 291-292.

Khaled Hosseini. (2008) Chasing the wind. Phantom Press. Pp. 234-235.

Khaled Hosseini. (2013) And the Mountains Echoed. New York: Riverhead Books. 402 p. (in English).

Mir Hikmatullah Sadat. (2006) "The Afghan Experience: An Exploratory Study of Societal Realities through the Lenses of Afghan Diasporic Literary Works". PhD diss., Claremont Graduate University and San Diego State University. 293 p. (in English).

Mohammed Ilyas. (2018) Expatriate Experience and the Fictional World of Diaspora. Journal of Social Studies Education Research. 2018:9 (1). Pp. 106-123. (in English).

Rachel Blumental. (2012) Looking for Home in the Islamic Diaspora of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Azar Nafisi, and Khaled Hosseini. Arab Studies Quarterly .Vol. 34, №. 4. Pp. 250-264. (in English).

Raihanah M.M. (2014) Exploring representations of Self by Diasporic Muslim Writers. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences № 118. Pp. 365-370. (in English).

Ruzmatova D.R. (2018) Human Relations in "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. International Journal of Progressive Sciences and Technologies (IJPSAT) Vol. 11 №. 1. Pp. 31-34. (in English).

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ОСОБЕННОСТИ ДИАСПОРЫ В РОМАНАХ ХАЛЕДА ХОССЕЙНИ

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Рузматова Дилноза Раматжановна1

1PhD научный сотрудник, Узбекский государственный университет мировых языков, город Ташкент, улица Kichik Xalqa Yo li , квартал G-9a , дом 21-a, Ташкент, Узбекистан

E-mail: [email protected]

Аннотация

Целью данного исследования является анализ трех романов "Бегущий за ветром", "Тысяча сияющих солнц", "И эхо летит по горам" афганского американского писателя Халеда Хоссейни в соответствии с основными литературными особенностями афганской диаспоры.

Данная историческая литература становится одним из наиболее интересных направлений. Авторы афганской диаспоры, создающие свои произведения на английском языке, выделяют три основных метода: столкновение языков и культур, применение биографических данных и соотношение времени и пространства.

Что касается основных методов, обнаруженных в этом исследовании, очевидно, что Хоссейни глобально изображает проблемы своей нации и страны, более того, он пытается доказать тот факт, что афганский народ также стремится к миру и богатству, как и другие народы. Результаты этой работы показали, что писатель эффективно использовал все три метода в своих текстах, чтобы показать их принадлежность к обеим странам - Афганистану и Америке.

Это исследование является попыткой раскрыть важность литературных характеристик романов, рассматривая, в частности, те, которые упомянуты выше. Это поможет читателям расшифровать существенные диаспорские особенности произведений Хоссейни, применив три исследуемых метода. В дополнение к этому диаспорская и эмигрантская литература обозначена исследователем на основе примеров и выделена текстовым анализом литературных произведений диаспоры.

Ключевые слова: литература диаспоры, литература экспатриантов, афганская диаспора, Афганистан, поколение, особенности, столкновение языков и культур, биографический метод, пространственно-временная корреляция, анализ текста, война.

СПИСОК ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

Ба^одир Карим. (2016) Ру^ият алифбоси. Ташкент: Гафур Гулом номидаги нашриёт-матбаа ижодий уйи. 354 p.

Denise Helly (2006) "Diaspora: History of an Idea," in Muslim Diaspora: Gender, Culture, and Identity, ed. Haideh Moghissi. New York: Routledge. (in English).

Guiyou Huang. (2009) The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian and American Literature. London: Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut. 1197 p. (in English).

Khaled Hosseini. (2003) The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books. 372 p. (in English).

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