LIMINAL SELVES IN MONICA ALI’S BRICK LANE

This study aims to shed light on the liminal identities of Monica Ali’s characters in Brick Lane that are shaped by cross-cultural circumstances and the border-crossing experience. This experience causes many changes in the migrant’s life in terms of living conditions, social milieu, cultural circumstances, educational opportunities and gender roles. All of these factors are means for the construction of an identity for a settled life in a country. In a foreign country, a migrant wants to survive and experiences a dilemma between the host and home lands. To overcome this dilemma, the migrant realizes his or her actual self by dwelling on the ambivalent nature of liminal subjectivity. In a way, migration generates thresholds in life since the subjects who are in a transitory, middle passage, move through a process that takes them from separation to integration. In this sense, Monica Ali crafts the identity construction of her characters in a framework through transition into reunion in a new way of life. Consequently, this study will analyze the liminal identities of Brick Lane by focusing on the term ‘liminality’ within the interrelated concepts, ambivalence and third space coined by Homi Bhabha.

Monica Ali’nin Brick Lane Başlıklı Romanında Arada Kalmış Benlikler

Bu çalışma, Monica Ali’nin Brick Lane adlı romanındaki sınırı geçme deneyimi ve kültürlerarası durumlarla şekillenen karakterlerin arada kalmış benliklerini açıklığa kavuşturmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu deneyim bir göçmenin hayatında yaşam şartları, sosyal statü, kültürel durumlar, eğitim olanakları ve cinsiyet rolleri açısından birçok değişikliğe sebep olmaktadır. Tüm bu hususlar herhangi bir ülkede hayat kurmak için kimlik inşasına giden yollardır. Yabancı bir ülkede, göçmen hayatta kalmak ister ve ev sahibi ülke ve ana ülkesi arasında bir ikilem yaşar. Bunun üstesinden gelebilmek için, göçmen arada kalmış öznelliğin bilinmez doğasında yaşarken kendi gerçek benliğini tecrübe eder. Bu bağlamda, Monica Ali yeni yaşam yolunda geçişi yeniden toparlanma ile tecrübe eden karakterlerin kimlik inşasını ustalıkla yansıtmaktadır. Nitekim göç hayatta arada kalmışlıklar sunmaktadır çünkü geçicilikle, ortada kalmışlıkla meşgul özneler dağılmadan birleşmeye doğru bir yol izler. Sonuç olarak, bu çalışma Homi Bhabha’nın üçüncü yaşam alanı ve belirsizlik ifadeleri ile ‘arada kalmışlık’ terimine değinerek Brick Lane adlı romanda yer alan arada kalmış kimlikleri analiz edecektir.

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