MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature

Postcolonial issues in Monica Alis Brick Lane

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2007

Supervisor: Mgr. Lucie Podroukov, Ph.D.

Written by: Pavla Navrtilov

Declaration
Hereby I state that I have worked on this bachelor thesis by myself and that all the sources of information I have used are listed in the References. I approve that this work is kept at Masaryk University in Brno in the library of the Faculty of Education and made available for study purposes.

In Brno, 7 August 2007

Pavla Navrtilov

My grateful thanks go to Mgr. Lucie Podroukov, Ph.D., who commented on my work.

Contents:
INTRODUCTION..5 I HAVE TO WRITE WITH THE DOOR FIRMLY CLOSED.5 ALI COMMENTS ON ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND ASSIMILATION ...6 SHE IS NOT ONE OF US..9 TERMS COLONIAL, POSTCOLONIAL, AND THIRD WORLD BEGIN DISCUSSION......11 I DIDNT ASK TO BE BORN HERE....13 DARK AND DISTANT LANDS..13 THEIR BODIES ARE HERE BUT THEIR HEARTS ARE BACK THERE..15 MEN, DOING WHATEVER THEY COULD IN THIS WORLD..17 IF YOU WORK IT LOOKS BAD...19 I KNOW WHAT I WOULD WISH....20 JUST WAIT AND 24 CONCLUSION.28 BIBLIOGRAPHY.....30 ELECTRONIC SOURCES..30 RESUM...33

Introduction
With her debut novel Brick Lane Monica Ali became one of promising young British authors who are concerned with immigrant experience. She comes from Bangladesh, a former British colony, received education and lives in Great Britain. Her origin is important in the connection with the content of her novel. In Brick Lane Ali often uses contrasting images of village life from her home country in confrontation with London streets. The contrasts influence the destiny of the novel characters. Ali also focuses on the life and career prospects of immigrants from Bangladesh. In my work I will start with a brief introduction of the author and her attitude towards Brick Lane and what sources were important for the writer. Afterwards I will reflect both positive and negative responses to the novel and its filming. I will cite from several interesting critiques written by renowned authors, e.g. Germaine Greer and Salman Rushdie. Individual terms related to the theory of postcolonialism will be immediately followed by literary analysis supported by textual evidence of Brick Lane. The development of the meanings of postcolonialism and the Third World will be described together with the short historical outline of India and Bangladesh. I will touch the positive and negative features of multiculturalism as reflected in current British policy. Nationalism and displacement will be discussed in connection with Muslim religious traditions. Feminism is certainly the most significant feature of postcolonial literatures, therefore I will deal with this element in more detail. I will also compare the main elements of Saids orientalism with leading feministic ideas. The purpose of this thesis is to attempt to answer the question to what extent Monica Ali belongs among postcolonial authors. In the thesis I will try to find features and principles that indicate the incline towards postocolonial literature.

I have to write with the door firmly closed

Monica Ali was born in 1967 in Dhaka, then part of East Pakistan to a Bengali father and English mother. During the war of independence in 1971 the Ali family managed to escape to Britain, where they settled and ran a shop selling jewellery and trinkets for a short time. Later her father taught for the Open University and her mother became a counsellor.

Monica graduated from Oxford and then worked in publishing and design. She married a management consultant Simon Torrance, with whom she has two children, Felix and Schumi. She started writing short stories after the birth of their first child and her first novel Brick Lane took her eighteen months to finish. Five months before publishing Brick Lane, in January 2003, Ali was listed as one of the Best Young British novelists, which increased the interest of media (Ali, Monica). In Britain alone the book sold 150,000 copies in hardback. It was translated into 25 languages and lasted on the bestseller list for 46 weeks (Lane). In her essay Where Im Coming From Ali describes and explains what inspired her to write Brick Lane: My experience, for instance, of conflict between first- and secondgeneration immigrants. The stories that my father used to tell about village life. A book of case studies about Bangladeshi women garment workers in Dhaka and the East End of London, desparate lives drawn together by the common goal of self-empowerment. Brick Lane does not copy Alis family history or track her own experiences (Where Im Coming From). In her interview in the Guardian Ali places herself neither to the British nor to the Bangladeshi community, her position is, in her own words, on the far side of two cultures (Lane).

Ali

comments

on

issues

of

identity

and

assimilation
Brick Lane was given positive criticism. It was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Booker prize. Critics tended to view the novel as a record of immigrants experience comparing it with the work with Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith or Salman Rushdie. Nevertheless, Ali herself claims she did not write the novel purely under the influence of an immigrants experience or as an inspiration by other famous authors coming from former colonies and dealing with postcolonial issues. She declares to have created her work under the influence of John Updike, Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov and Iris Murdoch (Ali, Monica). Evidently Ali defends herself against categorizing her work as a purely postcolonial literature.

Other feature of the novel highlighted by the critics is the quiet description of the characters decorated with a refreshing touch of humour. However, some criticized the usage of Pidgin English in Hasinas letters, while others praised this feature as a poetic element. In my opinion the language used in Hasinas letters expresses the haste of her life, her inability and even reluctancy to start a family, settle down in one place and live a quiet life. Her fate seems to hurry her through all its circumstances and does not allow her to return and correct what she has done or written. Thirteen years of Nazneens life after Raqibs death are described only in a fragmentary way as flashbacks in Hasinas letters. When Nazneen gives birth to Shahana, Hasina replies: May daughter be so sweet as the mother (165). After Bibi si born, she writes: God bless me. Another niece! I think of her. I think of Shahana. Send photo of both(175). Chanus efforts concerning finding a respectable job are also reflected in her letters sounding ironically without meaning to: Your husband is very good at finding jobs. What is Leisure Center? Is it Government job? (178). Through her remark we learn about Nazneens nervous problems when her elder daughter starts going to school: If doctor gives pills you must take even in spite I do not know what kind of pill can cure disease of sadness. When you get use to Shahana being out from house you feeling like your old self again (184). Hasinas adventurous life and the vivid colourful places she comes through are too rich to be narrated in the same detailed style as Nazneens life. Ali purposely disguises the sharpness and authenticity in the form of an epistolary chapter, where Hasina writes letters to Nazneen about her everyday existence in her simple and rustic style. Her letters symbolize Hasinas character and Nazneen notices the difference between them: Nazneen composed and recomposed her replies until the grammar was satisfactory; all errors expunged along with any vital signs but Hasina kicked aside all such constraints: her letters were full of mistakes and bursting with life (93). Her style is unsophisticated, direct and primitive. From the very beginning Hasina refuses to rely on her fate and she makes her own decisions. At the age of sixteen she elopes with her lover to the city of Khulna. In the rigid religious society she does not only put herself to shame but also dishonours her family: Hamid [her father] ground his teeth and an axe besides. For sixteen hot days and cool nights cursing his whore-pig daughter whose head would be severed the moment she came crawling back (6-7). Her irresponsible escape from her duty and tradition is compared to death: you would not know he had lost a daughter 7

(7). But Hasina is an inexperienced village girl and her naivety and disobedience is punished soon. Her lover turns to be a violent person who beats her up and she escapes again, this time to the capital city, where she finds a machine work in a garment factory. Unfortunately Hasina does not adapt herself successfully and her naivety leads her to face other disasters in her life. She becomes a prostitute, gets married for the second time, leaves her husband, survives as a prostitute again and finally she works as a servant in a rich westernized Bangladeshi family. She loves the children she takes care of, yet she elopes again with their cook, Zaid. Alis novel Brick Lane was translated into many languages, Czech version was published in 2003 by BB Art under the title Ve tvrti Brick Lane translated by Petra Diestlerov. The meaning of the title is rather ambiguous as the meaning refers to a district of Brick Lane, which does not exist. Brick Lane is a long narrow street famous for its Sunday markets in the Tower Hamlets Borough. The reviews of the novel in Czech periodicals immediately followed. Ladislav Nagy considers the novel to be an interesting look in the life of a closed ethnic community and also a record of self-awakening and emancipation of the heroine. According to Nagy Nazneen finds the courage to doubt the traditional values of Indian culture and find her own path of life. He declares that Ali has succeeded to create a believable, strong character, even if some passages could have been shorter and others more descriptive (Nov ivot). However, in his previous review from 11 November 2003 Nagy describes the story as not strong enough and he criticizes the occurence of a stereotyped stock character of the old usurer, Mrs Islam. Though the character of Nazneen is well written, she longs to escape from the traditional Muslim community and wishes to join the British society. Nagy appreciates the style, which is unobtrusive, moderate and elegant (Oslavovanmu debutu unikla jen tak tak Booker Prize). Nagy in his reviews does not take into account that Nazneen is a woman who believes in God and never considers to leave the community or to change dramatically her lifestyle based on traditions. Her life is devoted to her daughters and she considers them to be the most important. Moreover, Nagy has mistaken Nazneen for and Indian woman but she is a Bangladeshi. The iLiteratura site offers another review by a Czech critic, Richard Olehla. Brick Lane is a street full of small shops for tourists but the Bangladeshi community, which 8

lives its own life out of the public eye, inhabits the neighbouring streets. The traditions still play an important role in the immigrants families, man and woman having a different status and tasks. Olehla compares Nazneen against Razia and Hasina, their desire to work and earn money and the various ways in which they reach the goal. Razia begins to earn money only after her husband dies, Hasinas letters describe the difficulties of women workers in a traditional religious society, Nazneens desire to work is realized by her husband who buys her a sewing machine and this machine becomes the symbol of her emancipation. When Chanu decides that his family will return to Bangladesh, Nazneen herself does not protest but there are their daughters, who strongly oppose his decision and they gradually make Nazneen change her point of view. Olehla values the novel for the non-traditional points of view. The reader has the possibility to observe an average life in a Muslim society and the events that followed 11 September 2001. Ali touches on the clash between the religous Bangladeshi traditions and the secular world surrounding the Muslims. Olehla considers the descriptions of the street riots too shallow and he lacks more detailed survey after the terrorist attacks. He appreciates the evolution of the heroine from a domesticated wife without any ambitions to a strong, modern and independent woman, who still considers herself to be a member of the traditional society (Olehla). Linda Sokaov in her review highlights the problems of young people from the Muslim community, who were born in England and do not earn money to support the family in Bangladesh nor wish to return there. Young people search for their identity hidden between the religious rules on one side and the western consumer society on the other. The contrast brings its results: the young Bangladeshi who neglect all their culture and become completely westernized and fundamental radicalists who pure the spoilt society by military actions (Sokaov).

She is not one of us

After the enormous success of the book film-makers decided to shoot a film in the real scene of Brick Lane in London, but the Bangladeshi community strictly decided to prevent the filming by threating the filmers. The film company took the threats seriously and after consulting the police they stopped. Abdus Sadiqui, chairman of Brick Lane Traders, explains why the Bangladeshi community disagree with the content of the book:

 She says it is fiction, and the film will be fiction, but to me that is not true. She has targeted our Sylheti community, for some reason, why I don't know, and she is saying things about us which are just not true. Mr Sadiqui, unlike many of her critics, have read Brick Lane does not consider Ali to be a member of his community and feels offended by the novel (Kennedy). Australian feminist Germaine Greer begins her article on Brick Lane and its filming with sharp satire: Writers are treacherous; they will sneak up on you and write about you in terms that you don't recognise. Greer does not believe Ali to be on the far ends of both cultures. In her opinion, Ali is on the side of British culture, not far from the middle. Ali is criticized that she cannot speak any Bengali which she would not have done if she had wanted to remember it. Greer also points out the inappropriateness of the place, where Ali has settled: In Dulwich, a smart corner of south London that is a far cry from Bolton or Brick Lane (Greer). Greer claims that the characters of Brick Lane are created entirely for English readers, as they do not know much about their Bangladeshi neighbours. The fact, that Alis father is a Bangladeshi, is enough to know the truth of the community. She insists that Ali misused her Muslim name, the name of the famous Brick Lane, and ridiculed people who do not have much possibility to defend themselves publicly (Greer). Salman Rushdies reaction to Greers review is similarly sharp as her critique of Alis novel. In the letter published by the Guardian Rushdie denounces Greer's support for the Brick Lane activists who are attempting to block the film as: philistine, sanctimonious, and disgraceful, but it is not unexpected. Rushdie compares Greers reaction to Alis novel to her response to his Satanic Verses: She went on to describe me as a megalomaniac, an Englishman with dark skin. Now it's Monica Ali's turn to be deracinated by Germaine. He also claims that Greer shows a strange mixture of ignorance (she actually believes that this is the first novel to portray London's Bangladeshi community, and doesn't know that many Brick Lane Asians are in favour of the filming) (Brickbats). Both Greer and Rushdie use the media not only for expressing their attitudes to a debut written by a young talented author, but also for criticism which overreaches the novel, aiming at each other. In a letter signed by Lisa Appignanesi, the Deputy president of English PEN, Hanif Kureishi, Anthony Lester QC, Salman Rushdie and Gillian Slovo, is explained that members of the Brick Lane community do not refuse the filming uniformly and a local 10

resident, Abdul Goffur, is cited: I live in Brick Lane and we've got a thousand guys who are in support of this. This film will be helpful in opening up our community and helping us progress as a community as a whole (Not all Bangladeshis oppose the filming of Brick Lane). In contrast to this statement there is a response from a Sylheti community member, Mr Ahmed, who explains the prejudice adopted by inhabitants from other parts of Bangladesh against people from Sylhet. Mr Ahmed points out that Monica Ali comes from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and she, therefore, reflects the arrogance of city dwellers to people living in mainly rural Sylhet. He also claims to abhor threats of violence against any individual or group. Yet I find it ironic that Ali is being lauded in some quarters as an icon of liberal multicultural Britain when in fact she is fanning rivalries and stereotypes within the British Bangladeshi community(Not all Bangladeshis oppose the filming of Brick Lane). In the novel Chanu claims himself to be westernized but in a telephone conversation overheard by Nazneen shortly after their wedding he describes his young wife in the traditional manner as a commodity he has just purchased at a market, and not as a human being: not so ugly hips are a bit narrow but wide enough to carry children a blind uncle is better than no uncle she is a good worker a girl from the village: totally unspoilt (14-15). He even judges his own people according to their place of birth: most of our people here are Sylhetis. But these people are peasants. Uneducated. Illiterate. Close-minded. Without ambition. (20-21). These statements probably seem offensive to some members of the Sylheti Bangladeshi community.

Terms Colonial, Postcolonial, and Third World begin discussions

Although Monica Ali rejects being ranked among authors who are considered to write immigrant literature, her novel obviously involves postcolonial features. The term postcolonialism or post-colonialism presupposes another term, colonialism. Colonialism defines the era of cultural exploitation by European countries in occupied areas. The relationship between the colonizer and the colonized country was based on a rigid hierarchy of the winner and the loser, the centre and the marginal. The colonized countries provided their colonizers with raw materials and their economies were firmly

11

controlled by institutions ruled by the foreign power. To justify the economical and cultural abuse the theory of White Mans Burden came into existence. The colonizers were described and admired by the contemporary society as fathers, bringing culture, development and aid to a subordinate and naive nation (Post-Colonial Studies 178). European countries adopted the beneficent role in lifting non-European peoples out of poverty and ignorance (The White Mans Burden). The principle of the theory is based on the existence of the polarity of the educated, sophisticated provider on one side and the donee, who is grateful, ignorant, obedient and trouble-free. This polarity misshapes the perception of Eastern countries, their culture, politics, and life from the Western point of view. Originally historians used the term post-colonialism as a chronological expression referring to the period after decolonization. Nevertheless, from the late 1970s postcolonialism has been used by literary critics to discuss the cultural effects of colonization and to signify the political, linguistic and cultural experience of societies that were former European colonies (Post-Colonial Studies 186). Postcolonialism deals with the dilemmas of national identity that was considered to be inferior and of a poor quality by the colonizing power. Postcolonial literature is created either in excolonized countries or in the former colonizing centre and is mainly written in the language of the colonizer (Postcolonialism). Alfred Sauvy, a politician and economist, first used the term Third World in the Cold War period in 1952. He used the term to distinguish the major dominant powers of the West, (the First World), and the Soviet Union and its satellites, (the Second World), from the under-developed countries of South America, Africa, and Asia with no factual political or military power. This expression became widely popular especially in the media, where it became a label of any poor underdeveloped areas with low social status. As several Third World countries became richer and obtained a higher status, the countries, which remained poor, received a label the Fourth World countries. To the purpose of this thesis I decided to use the traditional term Third World in connection with countries that gained their independence after the WWII, and whose governments struggle with enormous poverty. The representants of the Third World in South Asia are India, Bangladesh and Pakistan (Post-Colonial Studies 159).

12

I didnt ask to be born here

After 190 years of British colonial era India gained its independence in August 1947 and became a Dominion within the Commonwealth. This historical event is called the Partition of India. The separation of the former colony raised problems, which still persist. The areas of Kashmir and Punjab are still the source of political and military clashes between India and Pakistan. The First Indo-Pakistani War took place in 1947 1950, and the inner Indian integration of all the states followed. The first years of the young republic were marked with riots and massive exchange of the population with Pakistan. As India claimed religious freedom, Hindus and Sikhs migrated there from East and West Pakistan, both religious Muslim states out of fear of repression. Bangladesh was created after the Third Indo-Pakistani War in 1971, when Indian troops attacked the military powers in what was then East Pakistan. The birth of the new state was a result of political compromises between India and West Pakistan. The early years of the new state of Bangladesh were filled with several coups and political turmoil. Both India and Bangladesh belong among states with high density of population, but Indian economy is among the fastest growing in the world, while Bangladesh remains underdeveloped and slowly expanding (Keen; "Partition of India").

Dark and distant lands

Multiculturalism is the idea or belief that the modern societies should include various cultural groups with equal cultural and political status. This term is often used in the connection with the immigrants and their different cultural traditions. The idea of multiculturalism has its supporters as well as critics. Those who support the existence of multicultural society stress out the connection between equal civil rights and equality of cultures. They also highlight the unique possibility to learn new facts and enrich our horizons under the influence of the coming literature, music, cuisine and fashion. The opposers view multicultural policy as an assault upon the foundation of the Western civilization and on the national identity. They are afraid of formation of cultural ghettos depending on nationality (Multiculturalism). In Great Britain under the Conservatives (1979 1997) the multicultural issue was not the official rhetoric. The Labour government then adopted the multicultural issues among the main features of their policy. The main stream of immigrants comes from

13

former colonies of the British Empire, lately from Poland. Labourists have adopted a policy, which is supposed to accept the people and respect their culture, and simultaneously they have encouraged them to participate in the life as citizens, i.e. integrate without assimilating. This approach is now criticized for its nonrealistic aims. The problems with integrating are connected with social and racial barriers. The current tendency heads towards social cohesion and inclusion, where the policy of multiculturalism seems to be at its end (Multiculturalism). The co-existence of two different nations is reflected in the novel from various points of view. Chanu, Nazneens husband, and Karim, her lover, represent two generations of Bangladeshi immigrants. Chanu is twenty years older than Nazneen, grew up in Bangladesh and came to Britain to earn money and return home as a rich man. Karim is ten years younger than Nazneen, he was born in England, and pays attention to the political situation of Muslims in the world and becomes a founder of a radical religious group. Chanu is ambitious, has a university degree from Dhaka and in Britain he has attended many courses to improve his skills. When he came to London, his dream was to become respectable not only in the Bangladeshi community, but also by the British. He wished to be a British civil servant. I was going to sit all the exams and be a High Flyer, Top Earner, Head of Department, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Right-Hand Bloody Man of the Bloody Prime Minister (406). Chanu knows the works of leading philosophers, cites Shakespeare and other English poets, but he does not have the opportunity to use his knowledge. He plans to increase the education of his people by establishing a public library, but he is not able to finish the project. His dreams are never realized. He gradually loses his ambitions, works as a taxi driver or rather, a fine collector, and the decline is described indirectly by the slight gradual changes of his clothes. At the beginning, when Nazneen marries Chanu, he polished his shoes. He polished his briefcase. Those were the days when he talked of when. When the promotion would come (101-102). During the following years his style changes: He had on his green anorak. The one with the snorkel hood. His trousers were shiny at the knee, and the sole of one shoe was coming unstitched (101). After his numerous professional failures Chanu concentrates on his last aim: to return to Dhaka with his family and live in Bangladesh. Although Chanu considers himself not to be bound by traditions or religion, he loves his native country, and follows 14

the rules. He does not allow his wife to go alone along the streets: She did not go out. Why should you go out? . And I will look like a fool. (39). He does the shopping: Chanu would push the pram and she would walk a step behind at the shops, Chanu would buy vegetables (90). He is an excellent cook but never helps her in the kitchen and he believes that Nazneen does not need to attend the English course because she will never speak with British people. Later her daughters, Shahana and Bibi, become her English teachers. He loves Nazneen and their children but he is not able to express his feelings in words. When Nazneen wishes to go to work with Razia, Chanu does not agree but buys a sewing machine for her to work at home.

Their bodies are here but their hearts are back there
Postcolonialism is reflected in different humanities. The ones of high importance linked to the postcolonial studies are, according to Leela Gandhi, the issues of nationalism and the inner solidarity of community (164). The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines nationalism as: the desire by a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, etc. to form an independent country (sometimes disapproving) a feeling of love for and pride in your country; a feeling that your country is better than any other (847). Although inhabitants of existing countries are highly conscious of their nationality (this issue is observed as a common requirement in forms we fill so often), the idea of nation equals state is not ancient, but recent. It is a social construction based on the myth of nationhood, masked by ideology (Post-Colonial Studies 150). Thus nationalism became one of the most powerful political tools in contemporary society as all the instrumentalities of a state power, as military and police agencies, judiciaries, religious hierarchies, educational system and political assemblies or organizations, are established and regulated by the single-nation state representatives (Post-Colonial Studies 150). Other issue connected to the post-colonial studies is dislocation or displacement. Displacement results from migration, transportation, or voluntary removal for indentured labour. The experience of a new completely different place encourages the new settlers to keep their language, traditions and culture to express their sense of otherness (The Empire Writes Back 9-11).

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Colonial era brought the phenomenon of migration into a vivid existence. People were migrating from their countries either to the centre of the colonial empire or to the colonized areas. Together with the traditions and lifestyle they brought their nationality to their new homes, where they tended to form a community based on the sense of nationhood and religion. The conquest of the dominions was performed on the ideas of national sense, on the superiority of one nation to another. Not very suprisingly the reverse process of decolonization was similarly rooted in the awareness of nationhood. After the end of colonial era the modern post-colonial countries organized themselves according to European single-nation state model, which was originally imposed by their colonizers: the use of nationalist myths and sentiments to control, suppress and discriminate against minority groups within many postcolonial states has been the subject of much recent argue for a greater tolerance and acceptance of cultural diversity (Post-Colonial Studies 155). A great number of immigrants face racial discrimination, which leads to separating and organizing gangs based on nationality and religion. The mutual disrespect negatively influences the relations inside immigrant families. The national and religious problems are presented in Brick Lane in connection with the character of Karim. He was born in England and is toughened by having grown up in the city: When I was at school, we used to be chased home every day. People getting beaten up the whole time. Then we got together, turned the tables. One of us got touched, they all pay for it (279). His father worked as a bus conductor for twenty-five years and had to retire because of the nerves: Kids giving him cheek. Men giving aggro. Got a tooth knocked out. Someone was sick on his shoes (247). Karim does not comprehend why his father calls him so often: And whats he ringing up for anyway? Hasnt got anything to say to me (246). When Karim was a child, his father had to take care of his ill wife. Karim did not understand why she was always lying down if he was around, and accused his father for not being a man (323). In his childhood Karim was evidently searching for a male model, and his father did not fit the little boys idea of a strong protective man. Karim meets Nazneen as a middleman for his uncles garment business delivering her sewing work. He prefers speaking English to Bengali, in Bengali he stammers. He is a politicaly active person and organizes the first meetings of similarly radical individuals. The first meeting is held after the Christian Lion Hearts group of radicals has delivered 16

leaflets to homes of Bangladeshi people. The content of the leaflets irritates the Muslim inhabitants: For a history lesson your son will be studying Africa or India or some other dark and distant land. English people, he will learn, are Wicked Colonialists. Christianity is being gently slaughtered. When the truth is that it [Islam] is a religion of hate and intolerance (268). Karim initiates writing similarly sharp leaflets to respond. He as the chairman of Bengali Tigers, Muslim organization, openly proclaims to support fighting Muslims in Chechnya, Egypt and other countries, where race and religious riots remain. With Karim Nazneen gains new knowledge about the political situation and religious clashes between radical Muslims and Christians. He invites her and her husband to come to the meetings. Nazneen does not mention this offer in front of Chanu, because he would not go, and decides to attend the meeting on her own will, although the decision to go is a painful process: She was tired today but she was restless. The fridge was stacked with Tupperware and there was no real excuse to cook. She washed a few socks in the kitchen sink, and then she went out (251). The meeting is an example how a persuasive spokesman can radicalize and unite a group of ordinary people: find a powerful name, generalize the purpose of the organization and have a spiritual leader. We are against, said Karim, any group that oppose us. (257). Nevertheless, Karims Bengali Tigers do not survive long for the inner clashes and despite all Karims effort the group later disintegrates into small street gangs fighting against each other. He both admires and refuses the western lifestyle. This constant discrepancy of his attitudes is evident in his clothes. When he starts dating Nazneen, he wears jeans, trainers, shirts and a gold necklace rather than traditional clothes, he uses a mobile and his hair is very short. After 11 September 2001, when Karim prefers wearing panjabi pajama and a skullcap (409), he combines the traditional clothes with a sleeveless fleece and big boots with the laces left undone at the top. The fleece and the boots were expensive (409).

Men, doing whatever they could in this world

The main religions in India and Bangladesh are Hinduism and Islam. The majority of people in Bangladesh believe in Allah, the only God of the Islamic religion. Islam is the youngest of the widely spread beliefs, on the contrary Hinduism is the oldest polytheic

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religion. The social position of women in both countries is relatively low from the western point of view. In poor Islamic countries women live in a society where the males make all the decisions. Women are pressed socially or even officially to wear traditional clothes veiling all their bodies or at least heads (Purdah; Hijab). At home they live in separated quarters in order to prevent men who do not belong to the entire family from seeing them. Islamic religion even allows beating the wife when she is not obedient enough: (Silas; Woman in Islam). The disparity between the strict religious rules and secular western society occurs in the relationship between Nazneen and Karim. Adultery is a mortal sin in Islamic society but Karim does not consider their love affair to be sinful or inappropriate. Karim tries to solve this contradiction by reading religious dogmas. After having sex with Nazneen he cites her lines from the Koran found on an Islamic education Internet site: A mans share of adultery is destined by Allah. He will never escape such destiny (376), and he even calls her sister (376). He does not connect the meaning of the words with his deeds. Another feature of the religiously bound Asian communities is the arranged or pragmatic marriage. There are three basic types of these marriages. The first is a forced marriage, where the parents choose their son or daughters future spouse without any chance to doubt their decision. If the son or daughter does so, he or she may be punished or even killed. Then there is a traditional arranged marriage, when the parents choose the spouse but there is a possibility for their son or daughter to refuse the choice. However, considerable pressure is put on the children to understand the parental good will and accept it. The third type is a modern arranged marriage. The parents choose several potential candidates, all highly perspective, and the couple is allowed to have a date or more dates to know each other better. (Arranged marriage). Nazneen and Chanus marriage is fully traditional, arranged by Chanu himself and Nazneens father. The reader is not offered any details about the marriage, or the wedding itself, in short it is mentioned that Nazneen accepts her fathers choice with expected obedience: Abba, it is good that you have chosen my husband. I hope I can be a good wife, like Amma. (7). Nazneen does not ask question about her future husband nor wants to see his photograph. But she coincidentally spots it and she realizes that the man she would marry was old. At least forty years old. He had a face like a frog. They would marry and he would take her back to England with him (7). This important fact is 18

followed by images of loneliness and helplessness. Nazneen observes a hawk carrying its prey until it disappears. Another picture shows a lonely empty hut in the middle of the paddy, which was relocated there by a tornado. Both the visions give indirect evidence of Nazneens feelings. She can feel the power of tradition, which rules her life like the hawk its prey. But disobedience or resistance to her fate does not even touch her mind. The marriage is transformed into the symbol of a tornado taking her away and changing her life completely. Nazneen has no idea of her life in the future, she only see the uncertainty of her destiny as the loneliness of the hut. At this moment she feels the difference between men and women: men, doing whatever they could in this world (8). Marriage is a traditional way of securing the daughters future. Women were raised in reliance and dependence upon fathers and husbands. Nevertheless, with the growing living costs during the last few decades another fenomenon have appeared: working women.

If you work it looks bad

In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, the main branch of industry are garment factories. About 600,000 women spend twelve hours every day working on imported fabrics. Yet at the beginning of the eighteenth century the whole area of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was not only fully self-sufficient in producing cotton, but also able to export its goods of high quality to Great Britain, where the British products were not able to win the competition. The political answer followed immediatelly: British importers were prohibited to purchase foreign cotton, and therefore the trade fell and the industry based on export was destroyed completely (Seabrook). Bangladesh today claims that the number of its very poor has decreased, and the living conditions have improved. However, the experience of people coming from the country is different. They live in slums in shanty houses without any running water, electricity or other supplies, facing the uncertain climate conditions. In her novel Ali describes such a slum in Hasinas letters: before the security guards come and clear up like leaves but now is all sort of tent and cardboard shack. One family living in big pipe is mean for taking water (177). Hasina lives in poor conditions: We all floating like ducks only time I get dry is in factory. Water coming through roof at home. Even it come through brick wall. When the plaster is finish then rain cannot come to the inside (163).

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According to Seabrook the life prospects of Dhaka women are limited: there are three options for young women in Dhaka. All involve clothes. They can make clothes for other people in the factories; they can wash clothes for other people as domestic servants; or they can take their clothes off for other people as sex workers (Seabrook). In Alis novel Hasina works in a garment factory in Dhaka after she runs away from her lover. There she meets Aleya who makes money for her sons to get proper education, despite her angry husband: Last month she best worker in factory and get bonus. They give a sari and for this sari she take beating. The husband say he will beat twice each day until she tell name of the man (164). Working women from the garment factories are often compared with prostitutes and Hasinas neighbour, who feels ashamed of the presence of Hasina reveals this fact to her: Well they [men] see a girl go around like that. And then they find out she a garment girl. Do you want that I take a stick and draw it here on the dirt for you? (160). When Abdul, one of the garment factory clerks, starts accompanying Hasina to her house, it is Hasina who is discredited and punished by sacking: Pretty girl eh? You boys! Have to get a little practice in before marriage eh? (169). After she loses her job Hasina really becomes a prostitute: They put me out form factory for untrue reason and due to they put me out the reason have come now as actual truth. Hussain still looking out for me. If he not look out anyone take what they like and not pay (177).

I know what I would wish

One of the basic texts of post-colonial studies that deal with similar polarity is Edward Saids Orientalism, where he focuses on the terms Orient and Oriental in the sense of otherness and other. Said shows the logical result of polarization of conceptions of the Western, or Occidental on the one side, and Eastern, Oriental, on the other. Even the usage of these opposite terms, according to Said, produces and implies the black-and-white view of reality, which is understood natural and logical (Orientalism). Orientalism is an openly political work, where the author demonstrates the link between knowledge and power, between the colonizer and the colonized. He claims that Orientalist scholars all operated within the assumption that Western civilization was the climax of historical development. The result of this premise was to confirm the primitive, originary, exotic and mysterious nature of Oriental societies and the degeneration of

20

the non-European branches of the Indo-European languages. He presents Orientalism as an example of the machinery of cultural domination that continues in contemporary life (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 53-54). Similarly to Saids ideas of Oriental, the traditional average representation of a Third World woman can be described as ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domesticated, family-oriented, victimised (The Post-Colonial Reader 261). Some female critics do not agree with the label Third World woman, claiming that this expression is tightly connected to the colour of the skin and gender rather than real-life women. This one-sided view of women from the Third World countries automatically evocates the conception of typical Western women, who are educated, modern, having control over their own bodies and sexualities (The Post-Colonial Reader 261). Hence Mohanty presents the Third World women not as a single group of powerless women in a neverending confrontation with men, but as a sisterhood of individuals with various lifestyles, problems and social status (The Post-Colonial Reader 262). Another literary scholar Leela Gandhi features feminism to be one of the most significant attributes of post-colonial studies. Feminism is a wide collection of moral philosophies, social theories and political movements motivated by gaining equality of the sexes: biological sex should not be the pre-determinant factor shaping a person's social identity or socio-political or economic rights (Feminism). The Oxford Dictionary offers another broad definition of feminism, which lies in the belief and aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men and the struggle to achieve this aim (466). The relationship and history of post-colonialism and feminism seem to have similar features. Women in many societies have been relegated to the position of marginalized or metaphorically colonized. Both feminist and post-colonial discourses attempt to change the status of the marginalized in the face of the dominant by unmasking the typical modes and structures of the latter (The Empire Writes Back 174-176). An African feminist Musa W. Dube reminds us of the biblical Eve stereotype, where woman is blamed for all evil in the world. This patriarchal relationship towards women is squared by hegemony from outside. The new imperial and cultural colonization is practised in former colonies throughout the world. Dube compares the life of women in post-colonial African countries to the myth of a hen searching for a lost needle: While African men and women scratch and search side by side for survival, it is the man/cock who looks up and does the talking. The woman focuses on looking down, searching hard 21

for the lost needle. Dube also adopts the symbol of the needle on the economical structure of developing countries. The Western economical structures are strongly rooted into the structures of the new post-colonial countries and the process of liberation stands for the needle (Dube). In the concepts of post-colonialism we distinguish two main streams of feminism: the western feminism and the feminism presented by the women who live or come from the former colonies. The native women for its attitude towards them criticize the western feminism. According to Trinh, western feminists create a division between I-who-havemade-it and You-who-cannot-make-it (qtd. in Gandhi 85). This point of view again evokes the polarity similar to the situation in colonized countries, the polarity between the superior and the subordinate. Trinh even compares the rare participation of the Third World women in the feminist meetings to shopping in a supermarket where we are offered a limited choice of other fashionable goods to the contrary of plenty of usual things. The other women are considered to be endangered and determined to be preserved and observed by the Western feminists (The Post-Colonial Reader 266). Both Trinh and Mohanty are criticized by Sara Suleri, who claims that feminist intelectuals misuse their status as minority voices and instead of looking for integrating and uniting elements they waste time highlighting the diversities (The Post-Colonial Reader 765; Suleri). Not all female characters in Alis novel appear, as they could be the models of typical Third World Women according to the traditionally accepted stereotyped attitude (The Post-Colonial Reader 261). Despite all her failures in her life Hasina does not lose her faith in God and she often praises Him for all the opportunities she receives: How much I have to praise for Him! How much He have given me! All times I making mistakes, all times I going off from straight Path (233). After several months serving Lovely and her family, Hasina starts to think about her own future. She realizes that she does not live her own life although she loves Lovelys children and likes her masters. Hasina decides to leave them. Before she finally goes away from the family, Hasina writes a letter to Nazneen. Her last letter resembles a soul-purifying confession, because there she reveals the secret of their mothers death. Hasina as a small girl saw their mother commit suicide and under the influence of this tragic event all her life has become a series of runaways. In her letter Hasina disapproves with mothers decision: She who think all path is closed for her. She take the only forbidden (475). This was the crucial moment, 22

when Hasina started to fear feelings of idleness and unrest, which always accompany her: How long I stay here? Big house it good house. But one room house feel big if belong in fact to you (475). Hasina has never been able to open her heart to anybody before, and carried the burden herself. Ali does not conclude Hasinas story in the novel and her future is veiled. The last mention of her comes from Chanu who has met her shortly before she leaves the family: She seemedunbroken (536). Fate-God is the rule, law and tradition also for other women in the novel. Nazneens mother, Rupban, realizes that she is pregnant, when she feels the first contractions before the delivery of her first daughter: Things ocurred to her. For seven months she had been ripening, like a mango on a tree. Only seven months (1). Even though Nazneen is a tiny baby born prematurely, her mother does not take her to hospital: we must not stand in the way of Fate. Whatever happens, I accept it. And my child must not waste any energy fighting against Fate. That way, she will be stronger (4). And Nazneen really does not waste her energy and survives to the surpise of a western reader. Although Nazneen admires and loves her mother Rupban and also believes in fate, she does not follow the same path. When her first son Raqib is sick, she does not even consider letting him struggle with fate himself without help. He is immediatelly taken to hospital and Nazneen questions her mothers decision to let herself to face the fate. Suprisingly, the idea of an ignorant Third World Woman who adopted the western lifestyle, i.e. better lifestyle, is shattered by Raqibs sudden death. He dies alone while Nazneen enjoys being on her own in their flat: walking over the bedspread, she imagined herself swinging a handbag like the white girls. She pulled the skirt higher, and examined her legs in the mirror (147-148). Nazneen believes herself to have gained victory over the death: she had forced Death away (150). The following confrontation with her only childs death seems to empty all her emotions. Ali does not describe this personal tragedy directly, nor she changes the vocabulary dramatically; her point of view is more abrupt and restrained: Chanu squeezed at his eyes, and some water trickled down his cheeks so that he looked to be wringing out the tears (151). Sentences are short with repetitions and parallels expressing the hidden tension: The room was quieter than usual, a quietness that rose somehow above the muted din of the hospital. The machines were off, thats what it was (151). Nazneen recalls the village childrens funerals: Little white parcels popped into a hole she remembered the burying; of the buried she retained nothing (152). 23

The ten days they spend together in hospital over their ill son helps both of them understand each other better. When their son Raqib is taken to hospital, Chanu starts to see his wife in a different way. In this crucial moment of their marriage he realizes that Nazneen is not only his sons mother, but also a human being who possesses all the appropriate human qualities. During their sons illness Nazneen behaves in an independent way and Chanu unwittingly accepts the shift of traditional roles. He prepares meals for her and takes care of Raqib. It is Nazneen that carries him through this new situation: Chanu came in carrying bags and the complicated smell of a high feast. Raqib, said Nazneen. Chanu startled. He seemed about to run. What? Go and check on him, said Nazneen gently (131). Nazneen also notices the change: It had not occurred to her that, in all those years before he married, he must have cooked. And since, he had only leaned on the cupborads and rested his belly on the kithcen surfaces while she chopped and fried and wiped around him. It did not irritate her that he had not helped. She felt, instead, a touch of guilt for finding him useless, for not crediting him with this surprising ability (132).

Just wait and

Nazneen meets several Bangladeshi women, who begin to play less or more important roles in her life. One of them is Mrs Azad, doctors wife. She is fully educated, does not wear the sari, speaks English fluently and goes to work. Her attitudes are striking and incomprehensible to Nazneen and Chanu, but highly acceptable for western reader. One day Chanu decides to pay doctor Azad an unexpected visit and they are perplexed by Mrs Azad words: Some women spend ten, twenty years here and they sit in the kitchen grinding spices all day and learn only two words of English they go around covered from head to toe, in their little walking prisons, and when someone calls to them in the street they are upset. The society is racist. The society is all wrong. Everything should change for them. They dont have to change one thing (116 117). But Nazneen does not consider herself to be bound or limited. She wears the traditional clothes, speaks her native language and does not wish to enter the English communities. Her family and identity remain stable values for her. Nazneens close friend Razia positively influences the process of Nazneens selfawakening. She quickly realizes the potential of her new home country and decides to live

24

independently, which is partially caused by her husbands death but mainly by Razias strong character. The first step is learning English, then she cuts her hair short and stops wearing sari: She was wearing a garment she called a tracksuit. She could never, so she said, wear a sari again. She was tired of taking little bird steps (95). Yet there are also negative features in this shift of the traditional roles. Razia does not want to become an English woman, but she gradually adopts male status and loses her femininity. She wears mens clothes, swears and her gestures are increasingly manlike. The most powerful woman of the Bangladeshi community is Mrs Islam, a widow with two adult sons. She is rich, wears sari, and keeps traditions. She is always the best informed person that seems to be very helpful to people who need support. Even Chanu approves Mrs Islam as a respectable type. It is Razia that reveals the secrets of Mrs Islams business success. She has become a usurer, who exploits her own people and profits from high loan interests. Her sons play the submissive role of bodyguards and helpers. After Raqib was born, Mrs Islam visits Nazneen every week and inspects how she takes care of her newborn son: Nazneen had begun to dread these visits. Raqib was five months old, and still Mrs Islam had not expended all her advice (83). The invisible tension between Nazneen and Mrs Islam becomes more evident when Mrs Islam forces Nazneen to lend her Raqib for a few hours to entertain her niece: Give him a feed now, and well go. Her words were as sharp as an eyeful of sand. No, hes staying here. With me. Nazneen trembled, but the warmth of Raqibs body against her chest fired her resolve (86-87). This disobedience to Mrs Islam is punished a few years later when Chanu decides to borrow money from her. Mrs Islam enjoys the privilege of a creditor to visit Nazneen and Chanu whenever she likes and often threatens them: Chanu was determined the woman should have no more. But after a persuasive visit from her sons, he had settled on fifty pounds per week (328). Mrs Islam soon learns about Chanus plan to return to Bangladesh and quickly reacts: You have it all? snapped Mrs Islam. Her black eyes glittered. Give it to me. How much is there? A thousand pounds still owing, and you are going to run away? Give me the rest. (330). When Mrs Islam and her sons pay their last visit to Nazneen to ask for the last instalment, she refuses to pay and openly designates Mrs Islam as a usurer: Not interest? Not a usurer? Lets see then. Swear it. She ran across to where the Book was kept. Glass crunched beneath her sandals. Swear on the 25

Quran. And Ill give you the two hundred. (487). Despite the fact that Mrs Islam is greedy, she refuses to take the Book-oath. The confrontation between her unclean business and the Koran is unbearable for her and shortly after this confrontation she leaves the London Bangladeshi community as a psychically broken woman. Here Nazneen proves her quality as a strong, independent and proud woman defending her family. When Nazneen suffers from a nervous breakdown, Chanu takes care of her night and day as a devoted husband. He does not go to work, cooks delicious meals and looks after their daughters. In the first day of her recovery her husband is unable to hide his feelings: Chanu came in and saw Nazneen sitting up. He became wreathed in smiles, bright and gay as the garlands that cover a grooms face (351). Overflown with unmanagable emotions Chanu even changes the way he usually speaks to her. He begins to address Nazneen indirectly, in an old-fashioned polite way, as she: She is disobeying the doctor. What a lot of trouble she will be in. Chanu smiled so hard that his cheeks were in danger of popping. Nazneen wondered why her husband spoke of her as she. If she had more energy, she decided, she would find this irritating (355). Chanus new approach towards his wife quickens Nazneens process of selfrecognition. At the beginning of the novel she is hardly aware of her values and qualities. There is always the fate-god existing in her mind. It was her place to sit and wait nothing else to be done. Nothing else that God wanted her to do (40). She often disagrees with her husband but says nothing: Nazneen kept quiet. Her guts prickled. Her forehead tightened. All he could do was talk (81). Gradually Nazneen begins to answer her husband in a uniform way: If you say so, husband. She meant to say something else by it: sometimes that she disagreed, sometimes that she didnt understand or that he was talking rubbish, sometimes that he was mad (100). After the nervous breakdown she is not the same wife as before, because she starts to express her feelings and opinions aloud. When she feels irritated by her husbands indirect addressing her and treating like a small disobedient child, she finally manages to react: Oh, she is, said Nazneen, shes listening. But she is not obeying. Chanu smiled expectantly, waiting for the joke to be explained (369). Her husband accepts her change, and before he leaves for Dhaka, he even reflects on his role as a husband and father: I havent been what you could call a perfect-type husband, he told his knees. Nor a perfect-type father (503).

26

Both Chanu and Karim are fond of speaking and sometimes Nazneen feels they often sound similar: Well have to go out of the village, Karim had said. He sounded almost like her husband (493). He views Nazneen in a similar way as her husband did in the beginning of their marriage, as a thing, a real thing: a real thing? A conversation overheard in the early days of her marriage came to her mind. An uspoilt girl. From the village. All things considered, I am satisfied (419). Karim plans to marry Nazneen after Chanu leaves for Bangladesh, but she refuses. She also refuses to depart with her husband and follow his plan of her life. Both Karim and Chanu solve their failures by leaving London and settling in Bangladesh. Nazneen involuntarily compares Chanu and Karim, their habits, clothes, characters, figures and looks. Karim speaks to her about things she understands and brings her books: He left Bengali newsletters for her. One was called The Light; another was simply titled Ummah. Chanu had never given her anything to read (259). Karim answers her growing affection and they become lovers. But their first sex shows his dominance and her submission: Get undressed, he said, and get into bed. He left the room. She pulled the covers up to her neck and closed her eyes (309). Their relationship develops to be a routine with settled signs, and Nazneen discovers a new power within herself, the power of passion: how could such a weak woman unleash a force so strong? She gave in to fate and not to herself (322). She is not the woman who hides her face any more: the times when she had lain naked beneath the sheets belonged to another, saintly era. She helped him undress. She felt it now: there was nothing she would not do (371). During the time of their dating she lives a double life of a passionate woman in the bedroom and a submissive partner out of the bedroom: Nazneen danced attendance. It was a thrill, this playing house. But she knew she was playing, and she sensed for Karim it was a serious business (323). Under the influence of this relationship Nazneen changes her behaviour and attitude towards her daughters and husband: She spent more time talking to her daughters, and they surprised her with their intelligence, their wit, and their artless sensitivity. She served her husband and she found out that he was a caring husband, a man of integrity, educated, and equipped with a pleasing thirst for knowledge (323). As their relationship continues the style of conversations slowly changes into a husband-wife talking. Nazneen answers Karim the same way as Chanu: if you say so (375).

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Conclusion
The purpose of the thesis was to analyse basic issues that belong to postcolonial literatures as they are presented in leading literary works. I was also interested in the responses to the content of the novel not only by critics but also by the Bangladeshi minority in Britain, which rejected Brick Lane as too westernized. Although Monica Ali declares that she does not consider herself to be a postcolonial author, she uses her own immigrant experience in the novel and despite her statements I discovered number of features that are of postcolonial tradition. Thereby Brick Lane can be perceived as one of the leading modern novels, which contains basic elements of postcolonial tradition. In Brick Lane the novelist covers the chief elements traditionally accepted as postcolonial. In this context settings of the story, the displacement of the characters and their search for the meaning of their lives are discussed. Ali locates her story into London, where Nazneen is brought to be married and where she starts her family. The author simultaneously offers views of modern Bangladesh through Hasinas letters, where Nazneens sister struggles with her destiny. The reader is invited to compare the basic values of life in both countries. Ali on purpose uses retrospective images of Nazneens home village, especially in the connection with the impersonal city, into which she came with her husband. The immigrant issue is also dealt with throughout the novel. Problems of immigrants who came from Bangladesh in the first wave differ from those of their children. Karim and Chanu stand for typical representatives of the two generations and their attitudes and preferences are described in detail. Another important feature is the shift of traditional roles within immigrant families from Bangladesh. Particularly the family setting based on patriarchy is shattered: as the economical situation of the families grows worse women are forced to seek work and improve the financial situation of their families. Thus women become more equal to men by contributing to family budget and they also gain new responsibilities. Ali also concentrates on female and male characters and their reception and understanding of their religious traditions and rules of life in modern and secular city. Ali focuses on details, symbols and items that help to describe the feelings of the main characters indirectly. She uses subjects from everyday life, memories, colours, and

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light images. She is not afraid of using Pidgin English in the epistolary part of the novel to express the dynamism and Otherness of Hasina. The reader is offered a novel with postcolonial features based primarily on womans feelings and attitudes that are slowly crystalizing and developing. Brick Lane does not show the final result but only the beginning of the process.

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Bibliography:
Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. New York: Scribner, 2003. Suleri, Sara. "Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition." Critical Inquiry. (Summer 1992): 756-769. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, Ed. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 1995. ---. Post-Colonial Studies : The Key Concepts . London: Routledge, 2002. ---. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge, 1989. Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. 4th Ed. New Delhi: OUP, 2002. Ashcroft, Bill, and Pal Ahluwalia. Edward Said. London: Routledge, 2004.

Electronic sources:
"The White Man's Burden." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 5 Jul 2006. 9 Mar 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_man%27s_burden>. "Postcolonialism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 14 Apr 2006. 2 Feb 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism>. Keen, Shirin. "The Partition of India." Postcolonial Studies at Emory. 20 Mar 1998. Emory University. 9 Jul 2007 <http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html>. "Partition of India." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 14 Jul 2006. 11 Jan 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India>. "Purdah." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 14 May 2006. 10 Mar 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdah>. "Hijab." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 11 May 2006. 9 Mar 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab>. Silas. "Wife Beating in Islam." Answering Islam: A Christian-Muslim Dialog. 3 Mar 2007. 19 Apr 2007 <http://www.answering-islam.de/Main/Silas/wife-beating.htm>. "Woman in Islam." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Aug 2006. 5 Jan 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_islam>. "Feminism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 14 May 2006. 9 Feb 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism>.

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Caslin, Sinead. "Feminism and Postcolonialism." The Imperial Archive. 19 Dec 2001. 23 Jan 2007 <http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/key-concepts/feminism-andpostcolonialism.htm>. Dube, Musa W. "Searching for the Lost Needle: Double Colonization & Postcolonial African Feminisms." Studies in World Christianity. Vol. 5, (2/1999). EBSCOhost. Masaryk Un.Lib. 12 Feb 2007 <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=8&sid=1ca9210b-701d-4a79-a0bd202c74f28110%40SRCSM2>. "Orientalism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 26 Oct 2006. 9 February 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism >. "Arranged marriage." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Dec 2006. 9 January 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage >. Seabrook, Jeremy. "The Women Workers of Dhaka." Third World Network Oct 1998. 6 January 2007 <http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/dhaka-cn.htm>. "Ali, Monica, 1967-." Literature Online . 15 Jun 2004. Chadwyck-Healey. Masaryk Un. Lib. 6 February 2007 <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/searchFulltext.do?id=BIO028609&divLevel=0&trailId=1131 0945318&area=ref&forward=critref_ft>. Ali, Monica. "Where I'm Coming From." The Guardian Jun 2003. 4 Apr 2007 <http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,979007,00.html>. Lane, Harriet. "Ali's in Wonderland." The Observer 1 Jun 2003. 14 Mar 2007 <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/bookgroup/story/0,13699,991601,00.html#article_continu e>. Kennedy, Maev. "In a sense, if you come under fire from those conservative people, you must be doing something right." Guardian Unlimited 28 July 2006. 8 Mar 2007 <http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1832294,00.html>. Greer, Germaine. "Reality Bites." Guardian Unlimited 24 July 2006. 8 Mar 2007 <http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1834796,00.html>. "Letters: Brickbats fly over Brick Lane." Guardian Unlimited 29 July 2006. 8 Mar 2007 <http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1834801,00.html#article_continue>.

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"Letters: Not all Bangladeshis oppose the filming of Brick Lane." Guardian Unlimited 20 July 2006. 8 Mar 2007 <http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1824456,00.html#article_continue>. Nagy, Ladislav. "Nov ivot ve tvrti Brick Lane." iLiteratura 11 Jan 2005. 14 Jan 2007 <http://www.iliteratura.cz/clanek.asp?polozkaID=16803>. Nagy, Ladislav. "Oslavovanmu debutu unikla jen tak tak Booker Prize ." iLiteratura 11 Nov 2003. 14 Jan 2007 <http://www.iliteratura.cz/clanek.asp?polozkaID=14695>. Olehla, Richard. "Sga o ensk emancipaci." iLiteratura 11 Jan 2004. 14 Jan 2007 <http://www.iliteratura.cz/clanek.asp?polozkaID=16809>. Sokaov, Linda. "Ve tvrti Brick Lane." Kontra. Vol 311 (Jan 2004). 12 Jan 2007 <http://www.a-kontra.net/ve-ctvrti-brick-lane>. "Multiculturalism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Sep 2006. 9 Feb 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism>. "Social Cohesion." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Oct 2006. 19 Feb 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_cohesion >. Great Britain. House of Commons. ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee. Social Cohesion. 6th Report of Session 2003 2004. Vol 114. London: The Stationery Office Ltd. 2004. 12 Feb 2007 <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmodpm/45/45.pdf>.

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Resum
Prce analyzuje prvotinu britsk autorky Moniky Ali Brick Lane. V prvnch tech kapitolch se zamuje na reakce vznanch literrnch kritik na obsah dla, jako i na nejednoznan pijet romnu a protesty bangladsk meniny proti jeho zfilmovn ve skuten ulici Brick Lane v Londn. Dal kapitoly pojednvj o zkladnch pojmech vztahujcch se k pojmu postkolonialismus, zem tetho svta, multikulturalismus, nacionalismus, imigrace a feminismus. Krtce se zamuje i na nboenskou tematiku, zmiuje Saidv Orientalismus a problm pracujcch en v muslimsk spolenosti. Dalm tmatem prce je otzka rozdlen muskch a enskch rol uvnit tradin rodiny a konfrontace hodnot rozdlnch kultur vchodn a zpadn spolenosti.

Resum
Thesis analyzes the debut novel Brick Lane written by Monica Ali. The responses of critics to the content and the questionable acceptance of the novel by the Bangladeshi comunity in London, as well as the official ban of the filming in the real street of Brick Lane are reflected in the first three chapters. Following parts are focused on postcolonialism, Third World countries, multiculturalism, nationalism, immigration and feminism. Religion, Saids Orientalism and problems of working women in Muslim society are mentioned in the work. Other topics described there is the shift of male and female roles inside a traditional family, and confrontation of values of Western and Eastern cultures.

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34