An Analysis Of Nazneen’s Discourse Power In Brick Lane From The Perspective Of Foucault’s Power And Discourse Theory

Monica Ali is an outstanding representative of the British minority literary writers.Her debut work,Brick Lane,received great attention and praise from European and American critics after its publication,and won many awards: British Book Awards(2003);People’s Choice Award(2003);Man Booker Prize(2003).In recent years,scholars at home and abroad have mainly studied this novel from the perspectives of thematic analysis,narrative features and identity studies,but few scholars have conducted in-depth analysis and research on the novel from the perspective of power and discourse theory.On the one hand,Foucault’s power and discourse theory reveals the inseparable relationship between them;on the other hand,it analyzes the path for discourse subjects to get rid of the bondage of discourse power and realize the construction of their discourse power.This thesis applies Foucault’s theory of power and discourse to analyze the manifestations of Nazneen’s docile body,lack of knowledge and deprivation of discourse,analyzes the causes,and ultimately constructs discourse power by establishing interpersonal relationships,resisting male-dominated discourse,and realizing female awareness.This thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion,of which the main body consists of three chapters.The first part is the introduction,the writer Monica Ali’s life,creative experience,and the main connotations of Foucault’s theory of power and discourse are briefly introduced,and the innovation and research significance of this thesis is analysed.The second part is the main body of the thesis,which is divided into three chapters.The process of the construction of the protagonist’s discourse power is analysed from three aspects: the specific manifestations of the character’s loss of discourse power,the causes,and how to construct the discourse power.In the first chapter,the specific manifestations of the protagonist’s loss of discourse power are discussed from three aspects,namely,the docile body,the lack of knowledge and the deprivation of discourse.The docile body is reflected in the protagonist’s role of pious Muslim and obedient housewife;the lack of knowledge is reflected in the lack of knowledge before and after marriage;the deprivation of the discourse is manifested in loss of discourse under the supervision of her father,husband and Mrs.Islam.The root causes of Nazneen’s loss of discourse power are analysed in the second chapter.First of all,it analyzes the process of Nazneen’s female discourse retreating to the secondary position under the oppression of male-dominated discourse in the patriarchal society;secondly,it analyzes the situation of female immigrants’ loss of discourse power in Britain where racial discrimination is prevalent;finally,it analyzes the control of traditional religion over discourse power.In the third chapter,the concrete manifestations of the protagonist’s construction of discourse power are explored.Firstly,Nazneen establishes interpersonal relationships with her friend Razia and her lover Karim to establish connections with the outside world;secondly,she realizes the awakening of female consciousness to construct her own discourse power,mainly in the form of economic and spiritual independence;finally,by resistance to male-dominated discourse of her husband Chanu and lover Karim,thereby Nazneen breaks away from the state of female aphasia and constructs her own discourse power.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis.By analyzing the manifestations and specific causes of the loss of discourse power of the protagonist in the novel,it can be found that the discourse power is closely related to religious culture,family relations and social conditions.Therefore,the importance and construction of female discourse power are indispensable for building a harmonious relationship between men and women and a stable society.The study of the construction of discourse power is conducive to encouraging marginalized groups or disadvantaged groups to defend their own discourse power,and to achieve the domination and construction of their own discourse power.