A Study Of Brick Lane From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Monica Ali's debut novel Brick Lane achieved excellent remarks when it was published in 2003.Nazneen,the novel's protagonist,was born in a Bangladeshi village.At the age of eighteen,she married a man who was more than forty and she had never met before.When they got married,her husband took her to the South Asian stronghold at the east end of London.Nazneen's immigrant life has started from there,and her inner world has also experienced tremendous changes.This dissertation makes an analysis of Brick Lane from the perspective of spatial criticism.Spatial Criticism can be described as the practice in literary area of the spatial theory,which is defined by “spatial turning” that happened in economic and political area in the late 1980 s.On the basis of analyzing Brick Lane's geographic space,social space and psychological space,this dissertation reveals the social problems that behind space,such as religious issues,the collision and integration between eastern and western cultures,the oppression and bondage on women and so on.This dissertation mainly includes three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction part gives a brief description about Monica Ali's life experience and the main content of Brick Lane,and makes an analysis about the research status of Brick Lane at home and abroad.The main body includes four chapters.The first chapter is the theoretical basis,which states the origin and development of spatial criticism,and introduces Henry Lefebver's spatial criticism from three aspects:geographic space,social space and psychological space.The second chapter firstly reveals the great gap between Bangladesh and Britain from geographic space,and then it makes an analysis about the shifting of the geographic space in Brick Lane.The shifting of the geographic space provides a material condition for Nazneen's self-liberation and helps Nazneen to recognize her identity.The third chapter firstly introduces the inequality between male and female from social space,and then it makes an analysis about the shifting of the social space in Brick Lane.The shifting of the social space helps Nazneen break the cage of the feudal culture and get rid of theoppression from the patriarchal society.The fourth chapter firstly explores the psychological activities of Bangladeshi women from psychological space,and then it makes an analysis about the shifting of the psychological space in Brick Lane.The shifting of the psychological space guides Nazneen to rebuild her inner world and to regain her self-value.The last part is the conclusion of the dissertation.It summarizes the main contents of the whole paper and analyses the important role of each level of space in Brick Lane in shaping the images of characters,promoting the development of plots and enhancing the artistic appeal of the novel.