Essay

Thesis statement

Literature has always served as a form of escapism. From the Victorian era when the novel was only beginning to be printed and there were no televisions, to now, in the twenty-first century amongst other modern technologies, books are revered as a journey into another land, into a time or place where the monotonous or lackluster schedule of daily life can be forgotten.

Introduction

Social constructs and prescriptions are a main aspect of this tedious routine of our lives, and literature, I strongly assert, can offer it's readers an alternative to this. Whether a writer has deliberately set out to instruct its readers on the truth of their society or not, a novel inevitably deals with 'socially prescribed models of identity, sexuality and/or belonging', of the era it is written in. What I will explore in this essay then, is to what extent it 'has the potential to liberate its readers' from these rigid social codes.

All the texts of the semester I would argue, embody identity, sexuality or a sense of belonging in someway as part of there main themes and I will firstly investigate the issues of identity and belonging as I feel they are closely related. Everyone has an identity, a sense of who they are and where they belong in the world. This can be closely related to nationality and culture, individual tastes and experiences. In Hanif Kureishi's My Beautiful Launderette we witness a Pakistani family living in England, who are often subjected to racial comments and abuse. In My Beautiful Launderette we witness two different societies and cultures mirror each other. They both have violence and sexual issues amongst themselves, and are not as different as they may think. I think this is a refreshing approach and can be liberating for a reader. Mexican writer and activist Gloria Anzaldúa, in her 'Borderlands' says, “But it is not enough to stand on the opposite river bank, shouting questions, challenging patriarchal, white conventions. A counterstance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in a mortal combat, like the cop and the criminal, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence. The counterstance refutes the dominant culture's view and beliefs, and, for this, it is proudly defiant.” (p. 2213, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.)

Discussion

We can see that sort of battle, or at least something akin to it exerted in My Beautiful ...