Societal Constructs of Gender Identity and Resistance in Malala Yousafzai's I Am Malala

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography I Am Malala. The aim of the thesis is to examine how the societal constructs present in the conservative Pakistani and Islamic culture of Yousafzai’s village affect her gender identity, both consciously and subconsciously, and how Yousafzai resists these influences. Her resistance against the societal constructs is tied together with the act of writing an autobiography and resisting the male-dominated literary canon. The theoretical framework of the analysis is feminist literary criticism. The thesis focuses on previous studies of female autobiographies as well as gynocriticism. The theoretical sources are used to present how Yousafzai’s resistance to the societal constructs, the rules and stereotypical roles placed on women in her village, is mirrored by writing an autobiography and stepping into the public sphere that has traditionally been a space for men. The act of writing an autobiography resists the tradition of women’s silence and makes her resistance public. The analysis shows how Yousafzai resists the societal constructs of her society but at the same time is influenced by them. She forms her own independent view of women, but her gender identity is still inevitably influenced by the culture she lives in. Yousafzai’s adoration towards her father demonstrates how the culture affects her subconsciously. The thesis concludes that Yousafzai uses the genre of autobiography as a tool of resistance, to show that she is not a passive victim but a woman with an agency. This way Yousafzai gains a public voice for her campaign for education and refuses to be silenced by the Taliban.