Triangulation: Analyzing age, gender, and migration in a study of Bangladeshi migrants in London and in Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane (2003)

Abstract

In this paper, we will present an analysis of three terms central to contemporary cultural critique: age, gender and migration, bringing them together in an approach we call “triangulation”. We draw on Katy Gardner's ethnographic study of Bangladeshi migrants to London, Age, Narrative and Migration (2002), which addresses the three terms, to examine the interrelated identity constructions that are at stake in triangulation. In a second step, we analyze Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane (2003) as a pertinent literary example, in which aspects of age, gender, and migration come together in ways that may further illuminate and develop these as terms of cultural critique.