Representation of ‘Queer Troubles’ in The Kite Runnerand Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Abstract

Gender roles, representation, and performativity occupy elementary position in the contemporary literary world of fiction. In Asian region performativity and discussion on queer differences are analogous to taboo. The present study analyzes gender troubles portrayed in The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini and Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Becky Albertalli. Content analysis technique helps to conduct a qualitative enquiry for evaluating diverse sexual orientations of fictional characters in the selected texts. Judith Butler’s theory of ‘Gender Performativity’ theory (1990) that rests on the idea of gender as performance provides theoretical underpinning to analyze how fiction portrays the ‘denaturalization’; a process depriving gender of rights due to digression from
established norms. The study establishes arguments that gender represented in Albertalli’s narrative finds a way of breaking the traditional norms of gender and sexuality implying that gender is instable, denaturalized and changes over time causing deviation from the established gender norms. InSimon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda,Simon’s gay identity shatters binary construction of gender into masculine and feminine and demonstrates gender performativity. The study reveals that LGBT identities are ‘subverted’ even in Western societies viewing gender into masculine and feminine merely. The Kite Runner focuses Assef’s gendered acts and his choices exposing him as bisexual though he cannot reveal his identity because of strict Sharia Laws in Afghanistan against LGBT community. The study discusses gender as social and contextual construction performing repeated acts. In Albertalli’s novel, gay characters perform as LGBT, supported by friends and family, however, in Hosseini’s novel characters with sexual orientations conceal their deviant sexual orientations due to strict religious and cultural norms resulting in serious problems. The study significantly educates readers about gender fluidity, differences, and sexual orientations. The study can be extended to investigate various social and psychological factors due to which characters fear announcing their LGBT identity and their inability in declaring the gender they perform.