Going on the East End walking tour today really brought Brick Lane to life for me; seeing all of the shops and vendors when I was walking around made me think of Nazneen running around while she was pregnant with her son. She travels down to the very end of brick lane which I walked three quaters of today and she talks of a lot of the general sights I saw that are usually common to brick lane like the bustling people and all of the restaurants with the waiters standing out front “with their tight black pants…holding out menus and smiles” (38) though she mentions it is deserted while she’s traveling it. I also saw flats that gave me a visual idea of how Nazeen was able to just look out of her window and see the tattooed woman sitting on her patio. That was particularly interesting to me because when reading it I had a hard time picturing what she meant because it’s less common to sit out on patios back home, especially in an apartment.
Brick Lane – Amanda
Brick Lane Theme/Issue Response:
In class today we discussed the Chanu and Karim, and one thing I noticed about both characters is that they have a kind of nostalgia for something that never really existed in the way they think about it. Chanu has a deep longing to return to Bangladesh, yet the country he wants to return to and that he “remembers” is starkly contrasted with the country Hasina experiences and writes about in her letters. One of the reasons Chanu says he wants to return to Bangladesh is to get Shahana and Bibi there so they can have a better life, but given the horrible experiences Hasina has, it seems unlikely that they would have had a better life there. Similarly, Karim has a sort of nostalgia for Bangladesh, even though he has never been there, and does not know what it is really like. His reasons for this are probably different that Chanu’s, and it would make sense to me that it had to do with wanting to learn his history and culture, like we discussed in class today. It also seems likely that his response was so strong because of the othering and discrimination he likely felt. Nazneen, on the other hand, has nostalgia for certain real places and times. It was interesting to note the differences!
Blog Post Instructions
A large portion of your grade comes from your blog posts, so make sure they have as much impact as possible on your fellow classmates and other readers of this blog. Here are the guidelines:
- Blog posts should be around 6-10 sentences.
- Posts should demonstrate clearly that you’ve grappled with the literature at hand.
- You must blog each day of our trip starting on Sunday evening or once for each day’s reading assignment.
- Posts can take one of two forms: you may either blog the night before on the piece(s) we’re covering the following day, or you may blog after the excursion that is associated with reading. Feel free to add any pictures or video you take during the excursion.
Consider the following suggestions for types of blog responses. These are merely suggestions; let the piece and your London experience of it guide your response:
- QuotationChoose a quotation from the work that you think is important. Give the page number and explain why the quotation is important.
- Apply Critical TheoryHow is this theory (feminism, postcolonialism, etc.) important to an understanding of reading?
- Theme/IssueIdentify a theme or issue and discuss how a work addresses it.
- QuestionsEven after carefully reading a work, you may have some questions. Your response should clearly show that you have struggled with understanding the work.
- Compare/ContrastYou should always think about how the works we read are similar to or different from one another in style, in content, and in the issues they deal with. Compare and contrast the reading with a work we read previously.
- Cultural/PoliticalHow does the reading reflect on or address the cultural/political conditions in which it is set? Is the work relevant to our cultural or political conditions here and now? In what way(s)?
- Peer ResponseYou are responsible for reading the responses of your peers. You may address their responses by disagreeing, furthering a point, or attempting to answer a question.
- AestheticsDiscuss authors’ use of specific literary techniques such point of view, characterization, metaphor, meter, rhyme, etc.
Welcome!
Welcome to British Woman Writers, a special study abroad class with Dr. Melissa McLeod and Ms. Katy Huie Harrison. We will use this space to keep students up to date on important information for both the class and for the logistics of our trip, and all enrolled students will blog daily on this site while we’re in London. Feel free to share the address with your family and friends before we leave so they can keep up with our exciting literary adventures!