Afghanistan and multiculturalism in Khaled Hosseini's novels: study of place and diversity
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to frame Khaled Hosseini's novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, as literature to expand and enhance the American secondary curriculum with multicultural themes based on Afghanistan as a geographical and cultural place in a dynamic, diverse, and complex world more mediated than ever before by computer technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological approach to the study is a synthesis of geographic education grounded in the concept of place and diversity pedagogy.
Findings
Khaled Hosseini's web site has become the cyber place where hundreds of readers from around the world come to express their deep emotional reactions to The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. At the same time, that so many diverse international readers are responding favorably to Hosseini's novels, his works are being censored in classrooms in the USA. The research outlines geographical and cultural geographic features of Afghanistan – a place torn by military efforts of several nations. In the context of diversity pedagogy, the power of the novels portrays “difference,” yet humanity in need of understanding. Further attention is given to the censorship of ideas in American education, with Hosseini's books as one example.
Originality/value
This paper frames Hosseini's novels as place‐based literature illustrating the homeland of Afghanistan now more accessible than ever before to international and US classrooms.
Keywords
Citation
Agnello, M.F., Todd, R.H., Olaniran, B. and Lucey, T.A. (2009), "Afghanistan and multiculturalism in Khaled Hosseini's novels: study of place and diversity", Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 96-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/17504970910967546
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited