An Interpretation Of Brick Lane From The Perspective Of Feminist Narratology

Brick Lane,the debut novel of Monica Ali,a Bengali-British female writer,fully demonstrates Ali’s concern for the living conditions and fates of women in the third world.In the novel,Ali confers the privilege of “seeing” and “speaking” on women by breaking through the tradition that women are “the object” in narration.Based on feminist narratology,the aim of this thesis is to analyze feminist narrative features in Brick Lane from narrative focalization,character’s speech and narrative voice to explore how Monica Ali employs these feminist narrative strategies to achieve the construction of female authority in the novel.Through the detailed analysis,the major findings are as follows: in terms of narrative focalization,Ali’s employment of zero focalization and fixed internal focalization breaks the central consciousness of male characters and makes the female become the observer,which assists in achieving the establishment of female consciousness.In terms of character’s speech,Ali’s adoption of direct speech which is direct and vivid and free indirect speech which has dual voices dissolves the male subject identity in male-female dualism and realizes the construction of female subjectivity.In terms of narrative voice,Ali’s application of personal voice and authorial voice endows female characters with the right and authority to tell their own stories,which helps to deconstruct male discursive authority and construct female discursive authority.To sum up,through the choice of these narrative strategies,Ali manifests the female consciousness and constructs the female subjectivity and discursive authority in the novel,thus realizing the construction of female authority to a certain extent.This study on Brick Lane from the perspective of feminist narratology is helpful in understanding feminist narrative features of Monica Ali’s novels and grasping the theme of her works more deeply,and it also draws people’s attention to the living conditions of women in the third world in modern society,thus providing some inspiration for their pursuit of a better life of independence and freedom.