This is the process we see Nazneen go through over the course of the novel, and it is reflected in the ways in which her perception of place and her actions within it evolve over the course of Brick Lane. The London she discovers is at first both bewildering and fascinating, a foreign territory into which she escapes; by the end of the book it has become familiar and she moves through it confidently. The architectural passages within the book show the differences not only in her attitude but also to the ways in which she interprets and navigates the city.
By examining which elements of the places are described, from physical features to the social relations constructed within it, we can see how her image of the city is built up. The act of…show more content… How do the words work to signify ideas of place? What does it reflect about the subjective experience, and what does it show about the ways in which that experience is communicated? It is possible to see not only one individual’s imagined interpretation of her built environment - how she builds her image of the city - but also how fragments of description convey that and allow them in turn to imagine and interpret the spaces.
The construction of the idea of place is particularly complex in Nazneen’s case because she arrives in London with very little pre-existing knowledge of the city, and its absence means she has no real framework or mental map within which to situate herself and her experiences. Her background and socio-economic situation means she approaches the city without any situated knowledge, and in this respect Brick Lane stands in contrast to many other chronicles of the city.
While the typically referenced accounts of the built environment, such as those of the psychogeographers, bring vast amounts of background knowledge to the writing, Nazneen does not. Whereas they seek out abandoned places, urban voids and contested city spaces in an effort to exist outside social structures, Nazneen’s identity means that for her
