A Study On The Cultural Identity In Monica Ali 's Brick Lane

As a female writer, Monica Ali (1967-) has a significant influence in the British contemporary literature of 1990s. In 2003, her first novel Brick Lane was published, which aroused widely concern for her. In the same year, Brick Lane was included in the top ten of British Man Booker Prize list. Her novel Alentejo Blues, In the Kitchen and Untold Story have been published in the next few years. At the this time, her name is spread widely all over the world like spring stream.The story began in a immigrant community of Bangladesh named brick lane in London. The course of the novel spans 17 years, from 1988 to 2002. Nazneen is the protagonist of this story, born in a Bangladeshi village and married with Chanu. Then she emigrated to London with her husband. Gradually, Nazneen transformed into an independent woman with Britain culture identity who desired for western culture and refused to accept the tradition of Bangladesh. Compared with the bustling London and poor Bangladeshi immigrant communities, the novel showed the conflict and collision of different race, different ethnic groups in political, economic and cultural aspects. Protagonists lived in brick lane feeling the sense of loss and frustration and asked for her own culture identity at the same time.This thesis takes from the perspective of cultural identity in post-colonial criticism to analyze and discuss. This paper tries to explore the necessity of establishing ethnic mixed cultural identity in the post-colonial London. It consists of the following five parts.The introduction is a brief introduction to the whole thesis. It includes a brief introduction to Ali, the background of her writings and the current research situation, and the research significance of this thesis.Chapter 1 analyzes some concepts of post-colonial context. Culture identity is the theory of different groups who pursue for self recognition in face of new culture. The colonial discourse of post-colonial era is a discourse system of immigrants who comprehend themselves with the contradiction of immigrants and colonizer. The redefinition of Englishness transforms from excluding to including.Chapter 2 is based on texts, discussing the identity crisis and culture hybridity of immigrants in the alien country. Language problems, loss of religious beliefs, the crisis of Otherness and loss of motherland result in hybridity. In the western cultural hegemony, it is impossible to miniroity to achieve the construction of pure cultural identity. Only through the fusion of different cultures can hybridity identity realize.Chapter 3 emphasizes the construction of hybrid identity in the third space through the special characters. Being Islamic immigrant women, the protagonist Nazneen and Razia had been longing for Englishness while Chanu and Karim had been searching for Bangladeshi root. Faced with the different ways of dealing with cultural conflicts, the hybrid identity is being highlighted.The conclusion interprets the necessity of hybrid identity with fluid culture identity. As a minority immigrant writer, Ali has an anxiety of culture identity and chooses hybrid identity in the face of cultural conflict ultimately.