Not reading Brick Lane

Citation

Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (2011) Not reading Brick Lane. New Formations, 73, pp. 64-90. http://www.newformations.co.uk/abstracts/nf73abstracts.html

Abstract
When someone becomes or does not become a reader - and how we make a claim to or refuse these kinds of identity - clearly matters within globalised cultures, where the challenges of literary representation quickly become problems of cultural misrepresentation. Yet precisely because not reading would appear to amount to nothing, its significance remains unexplored. In order to trace the conjunctural and multiple meanings of not reading, this essay explores the embattled reception surrounding Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane (2003) and its adaptation into film (2007), and locates not reading within a longer history of book controversies that is overshadowed by the Rushdie Affair. Our paper argues that, far from mere negation, not reading is an intensely productive site of cross-cultural negotiation and conflict without which the contemporary significance of global readerships and reading acts makes only partial sense.

Keywords
Not reading; book controversies; Monica Ali; Brick Lane; Rushdie Affair; hierarchies of reading

Journal
New Formations: Volume 73

People

Dr Bethan Benwell

Senior Lecturer, English Studies

Dr Gemma Robinson

Senior Lecturer, English Studies