Brick Lane’s political meaning is disputed between utopian and anti-community readings.

Evidence

Although Brick Lane’s feminist message appears obvious, the question of the book’s relationship to the phenomenon of political multiculturalism tends to split opinion. One the one hand, there is the argument, advanced by critics such as Sara Upstone, that “the novel’s conclusion speaks obviously to the possibility of multicultural Britain,” with its “powerful utopianism representing the claims of British Muslims to British citizenship.” On the other stands the more sanguine view voiced by Rehana Ahmed that “a submission to patriarchal culture on the part of the Muslim woman is counterposed to an individual dissent and withdrawal from culture and community.” — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 187

Categorization

• XREF: The Upstone-versus-Ahmed dispute models how to stage scholarly disagreement over Hamid and Naqvi — showing both readings of a novel are available and what turns on choosing.