BRICK LANE: FROM SUBALTERNITY TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN INDEPENDENT, MODERN AND UNRULY FEMALE INDENTITY

Abstract

The female character Nazneen is analyzed in the novel Brick Lane (2003), by Monica Ali. The aim is to verify the steps towards her emancipation, how she ascends as a woman, becoming independent and unruly. Besides, in contrast to Nazneen’s ascension, we also verify the stagnation of her sister, Hasina, who remained in a more oppressive society and could not achieve autonomy. The methodology of this work consists on theoretical texts that discuss the woman’s role in society, the rising of feminist struggles, as well as the Feminist Literary criticism as a way of woman writers represent challenging, independent and rebellious female characters. To support these discussions we used feminist theories of authors such as Bourdieu (2002), Beauvoir (1980), Wollstonecraft (2016), Showalter (2014), Woolf (1990), and others. The results show that the protagonist’s subjectivity is built from the evolution of a submissive character to an independent, unruly and modern woman. Nazneen just manages to build her subjectivity because she moves to a less oppressive society than the Muslim one, while Hasina, who remains in Bangladesh, could not evolve as a subject.