An Analysis of Sisterhood in A Thousand Splendid Suns_英语论文

摘要

《灿烂千阳》的作者是美籍阿富汗裔作家卡勒德·胡赛尼，该书以20世纪70年代到21世纪初的阿富汗为背景，描写了这三十多年来阿富汗人的生活。胡塞尼叙述了两位不同背景和性格的女性却同样遭受阿富汗的连年战乱、家庭的悲剧和深重的男权文化的压迫，陷入了悲惨的命运，但通过共同不懈抗争最终获得自由。姐妹情谊是女权主义者为了挑战父权制而提出的概念，是英美文学中很重要的主题，也是女性主义文学研究的重要角度。本文从姐妹情谊角度对小说《灿烂千阳》进行深度研究，描述来自不同背景下的玛丽雅姆和莱拉姐妹情谊怎样形成与发展以及姐妹情谊如何影响她们的人生轨迹。本文的研究方法主要是文献研究法和文本分析法，把作品植入到两位女主人公的姐妹情谊中观察。论文共分为三部分：第一部分解释姐妹情谊的内涵及分析该小说中姐妹情谊形成的根源，特别是战争和深重的父权制对玛丽娅姆和莱拉的影响；第二部分分析姐妹情谊形成的过程与发展，玛丽娅姆和莱拉从互相同情怜悯到互爱互助，在此过程中她们的姐妹情谊和自身都由弱变强；第三部分分析姐妹情谊在小说中的作用，促使她们的女性意识觉醒，反抗父权主义，寻求爱与希望。结论部分归纳前面的论述，并总结本文的意义，姐妹情谊对于当代阿富汗妇女的解放具有重要的现实和社会意义。           

关键词：《灿烂千阳》姐妹情谊 战争 父权制 女性意识 

Abstract

A Thousand Splendid Suns is written by Khaled Hosseini who is an American Afghans novelist. Hosseini describes lives of Afghans by setting in Afghanistan from the 1970s to the early 21st century. He focused on two women with different backgrounds and characters but both had tragic fates. They suffered from the war year after year, the tragedy of family and the pressure taken by patriarchy in Afghanistan, but by a relentless struggle together, they finally gained freedom. Sisterhood is a concept that is proposed by feminists to challenge patriarchy. It’s a very important theme in English and American literature and also is an important aspect of feminist literature. The thesis will analyze the novel from the perspective of sisterhood, and then describe the formation and development of sisterhood between Mariam and Laila and how sisterhood affects their lives. This thesis will put the theory sisterhood into the work by the approaches of literature research and text analysis. It consists of three parts. The first part explains the connotation of sisterhood and analyzes the causes of it, especially the oppression of patriarchy and war. The second part analyzes the process and development of sisterhood in the novel from weak to strong which they changed their attitudes from mutual compassion and pity to mutual care and support. The third part analyzes the effects of sisterhood in the novel. It fosters the awakening of their female consciousness, and helps them to resist patriarchy and pursue love and hope. The conclusion generalizes the preceding discussions and summarizes the meaning of this paper. Sisterhood has a great practical and social significance for the liberation of contemporary Afghan women.

Key words: A Thousand Splendid Suns; Sisterhood; War; Patriarchy; Female Consciousness

Contents

1.  Introduction 1

2.  Literature Review 3

3.  An Unforgiving Time: The Need of Sisterhood 5

3.1 The Connotation of Sisterhood 5

3.2 Oppression: Patriarchy and War 6

4.  An Unlikely Friendship: Sisterhood from Weak to Strong 8

4.1 Compassion and Pity 8

4.2 Hostility and Rivalry 9

4.3 Mutual Care and Support 10

5.  An Indestructible Love: Awareness and Action 12

5.1 The Awakening of Female Consciousness 12

5.2 Against Patriarchy 13

5.3 The Realization of Love 14

6.  Conclusion 16

Bibliography 17

Acknowledgements 18