Narrative Strategies in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane

Abstract

Women’s version of their own experience questions the male authority to describe female experiences. Women’s writing throws up all kinds of queries related to oppression and colonization. It has helped both to build and express the idea of a female “self”, and dismantles the concept of the all-inclusive male “I”. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth(2000)and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003) are fictional works, though they incorporate elements based on their authors’ personal experiences. The selected texts reveal the experiences of two ethnic minority writers in London. Monica Ali penetrates into the personal relations of migrants, while Smith captures the interaction among people belonging to different races. Monica Ali’s microscopic view and Smith’s wide ranging perspective give us a whole picture of multicultural London.The present paper analyzes the narrative strategies employed by Zadie Smith in White Teeth and Monica Ali in Brick Lane.