She's not one of us : an analysis of Monica Ali's novel Brick lane and Sarah Gavron's film Brick lane

Abstract

This thesis gives a close reading of Brick Lane in order to show how contemporary literature written by ethnic minorities can preserve stereotypical presentations of the Oriental. The thesis also discusses if the film adaptation of this novel contributes further to this stereotyping, or if the changes that necessarily have to be made when making such an adaptation leave another impression than the novel. The close reading of the novel reveals that Brick Lane's male characters are to a large extent built on well-established stereotypes. The female characters are more nuanced. The film, however, takes the liberty to both add and leave out different scenes, a change which actually makes the film less stereotyping and therefore more believable than the novel. The theoretical basis for my discussion is Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) and the theories emerging in the aftermath of this seminal study. The writer of the novel Brick Lane, Monica Ali, was born in Bangladesh by a British mother and Bangladeshi father. Her background, and the fact that she was one of the first Bangladeshis to write about Bangladeshi women in London, led people to confusing her novel, that is fiction, with historical reality. I argue that due to the political climate of the last twenty years, our curiosity towards Muslim women has grown, and anyone willing to shed light on the topic, whether they have the insight into these cultures and communities or not, are welcomed to do so. Throughout the thesis I aim to show not only that ethnic minority writers can and actually do enhance cultural and religious stereotypes in their writings, but also that being diasporic is precisely what makes it necessary to write in such a simplistic matter. Brick Lane is clearly aimed at a Western audience, since the novel is very explicit when it comes to religious and cultural practises - information that would be unnecessary to pass on to an ethnic Bangladeshi. The film makes interesting changes to the story, and ends up - perhaps unusually as far as adaptations are concerned - being much less stereotypical than the novel on which it is based.