BETWEEN SILENCE AND SPEECH: THE GIRL CHILD AS AGENT IN 21ST CENTURY NARRATIVES

The purpose of this study is to examine how contemporary narratives in literature and film articulate the transition of the girl child from silence to voice, with particular attention to agency, resistance, and empowerment. The selected texts : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2003), Nora Twomey’s animated film The Breadwinner (2017), and Malala Yousafzai’s memoir I Am Malala (2013) offer cross-cultural insights into how girlhood is shaped by structures of patriarchy, violence, and socio-political repression, yet finds avenues for self-assertion. Using Feminist Literary Theory alongside Postcolonial Feminism and Narrative Theory, this study foregrounds silence not merely as absence but as an imposed condition that simultaneously becomes a space of resistance. The principal results indicate that Kambili in Purple Hibiscus transforms from a silenced daughter under religious-patriarchal oppression into a voice of resilience. Parvana in The Breadwinner challenges Taliban authority by cross-dressing to sustain her family, thus reclaiming agency through disguise and survival and Malala’s autobiographical voice epitomizes the global struggle for girls’ right to education, shifting from personal testimony to universal advocacy. The major conclusion highlights that across diverse socio-political and cultural contexts, these works collectively emphasize the universality of the girl child’s struggle for selfhood and empowerment. By speaking through literature, film, and memoir, the girl child becomes not only a subject of representation but also a political agent whose voice redefines collective narratives of resistance. The study affirms that re-centering the girl child in cultural and literary discourse is crucial for understanding contemporary negotiations of identity, gender, and power.