From arranged marriage to self-determination : an interdisciplinary reading of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003)‎

الملخص EN

Based on the assumptions of self-determination theory (SDT) with reference to Islamic feminist ideas, this paper investigates Bangladeshi women’s quest for psychological growth and agency in Monica Ali’s debut novel brick lane (2003).

according to the psychological perspective of SDT, the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy reinforces intrinsic motivation and internalisation, leading to psychological well-being.

applying the SDT perspective to Ali’s novel, the paper focuses on analysing the types of motivation triggering Bangladeshi women’s actions and the relationship between these types of motivation and their psychological growth.

SDT seeks to empower people by foregrounding motivation and internalization.

therefore, it is critically illuminating to wed SDT ideas with the feminist perspective since woman’s empowerment and agency are pivotal tenets in feminism.

in particular, this paper refers to Islamic feminist ideas since the novel’s main subject is the status of Bangladeshi Muslim women.

this research discusses how a Bangladeshi woman’s life is dominated by extrinsic factors like fate, arranged marriage, and other patriarchal conditions that thwart her basic psychological needs.

however, the novel offers an optimistic vision of the possibility of achieving psychological growth and empowerment for Bangladeshi women through processes of intrinsic motivation and internalisation.