التناوب اللغوي كاستراتيجية لتأكيد الهوية والثقافة: تحليل لروايات خالد حسيني ”ألف شمس مشرقة“ و”عداء الطائرة الورقية Code-Switching as a Strategy of Cultural and Identity Assertion: An Analysis of Khalid Hosseini’s Novels A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner

This study investigates code-switching as a translation strategy in Khalid Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner, examining its role in articulating cultural identity and negotiating spaces between Afghan and Western contexts. By analyzing instances where Hosseini employs Dari, Pashto, and culturally specific expressions within English narration, the research highlights how code-switching functions beyond linguistic variation, serving as a marker of authenticity and cultural memory, allowing them to claim belonging while resisting cultural erasure. Drawing on sociolinguistic theories of code-switching and postcolonial perspectives on language and identity, the study argues that Hosseini’s selective use of multilingualism is not ornamental but deliberate—asserting Afghan heritage, evoking communal values, and challenging the dominance of monolingual literary norms. Ultimately, the analysis demonstrates how Hosseini’s novels exemplify code-switching as a literary tool that affirms identity, preserves cultural resonance, and mediates the complexities of global readership.
Code-switching is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that refers to the shift between various languages in speaking or writing and it is employed by speakers or authors for different linguistic, social and political reasons. This paper hopes to provide a simple insight into the phenomenon of code switching used by Khalid Hosseini, an Afghan-American writer, in his two novels A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner. The methodology in this study follows a descriptive approach to analyze data concerning code-switching that Hosseini employs in his two novels. This study examines the significance of code-switching in the formulation of cultural and identity assertion.