Moda, subalternidad y ecofeminismo en clave socio-literariaBrick Lane, de Monica Ali

  1. Noemí Pereira Ares 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, España
Journal:
Atlánticas: revista internacional de estudios feministas

ISSN: 2530-2736

Year of publication: 2023

Issue Title: Ecocrítica: De los feminismo(s) a los ecofeminismo(s): Análisis literarios y culturales

Volume: 8

Issue: 1

Pages: 169-191

Type: Article

DOI: 10.17979/ARIEF.2023.8.1.8711 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Atlánticas: revista internacional de estudios feministas

Abstract

The fashion industry entails a system of production and consumption in which the exploitation of the environment, the exploitation of certain geographical areas and labour exploitation —mainly female labour—are inextricably interrelated. Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodology that combines ecofeminist studies and sociological approaches to fashion in a postcolonial context, this paper aims to examine the interrelationship between fashion, subalternity and ecology through a socio-literary analysis of Monica Ali's debut novel, Brick Lane(2003). As will be shown, Brick Lane weaves together the stories of several Spivakian subalterns who find in the current textile industry a source of empowerment while their bodies and the natural environment that surrounds them become a focus of overexploitation. With a setting that walks the reader from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to the London of sweatshops, Brick Lane offers a subtle portrayal of the ambiguous relationship between fashion, female subalternity, and ecology on both sides of the East-West divide.

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