Beyond the Veil: Re-conceptualizing the Representations of Bengali Women in Ali’s Brick Lane

Abstract

Ali’s novel Brick Lane is significant because of its ambivalent representation of Bengali women. Drawing from the Postcolonial studies and feminist scholarship, the paper analyses the representations of the women in the novel, as they are shaped by various cultural signifiers. The paper critiques and notes the novel’s narrative practices with the particular attention paid to the gendered discourses. Comparing the alternative representation given by Ali in the novel Brick Lane, with the one found in the idiom of the colonizer, the study highlights the significance of voicing the experiences of the women of color, particularly the Muslim Bengali women, in diaspora who are reduced to the burqa-clad representations. Deconstructing the representations in the novel, it is argued that the women exercise agency in the public and private spheres of life. The study is significant as it questions the politically motivated representations of the formerly colonized women in the idiom of the colonizer, who are oppressed by their culture, concluding that the engagement of the postcolonial female writers with voicing of the experiences of the women of color has gone a long way to challenge the image of the colonizer as a savior of the colonized women.