| Abstract [eng] |
The present Master’s thesis focuses on the analysis of the contemporary Lithuanian (Dalia Jazukevičiūtė’s Dviejų mėnulių baras, Aleksandra Fomina’s Mes vakar buvom saloje and Vaiva Rykštaitė’s Kostiumų drama) and British (Monica Ali’s Brick Lane and Charlotte Mendelson’s Almost English) women’s novels of popular culture. In the selected literary works, the life of emigrants and / or immigrants is depicted in the strange milieu - London. They represent the socially constructed identity and milieu of individuals who live in the postmodern and global world. The theory of social constructionism (Manuel Castells, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann) allowed to analyse these novels adequately. In this paper, the expression of the identity construction of the main novels’ characters, who live the migration milieu, and its impact on their self-awareness are interpreted with reference to the theory / method of interdisciplinary comparativistics. To achieve the aim of the present work, the situation, peculiarities and tendencies of the contemporary women’s novel are presented in the context of popular culture and literature. It also provides the overview of Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature related to the topics of globalization, migration, identity and social construction of milieu. The analysis of the depicted processes of identity and social reality construction is based on Manuel Castells’s concept of constructionist identity, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s phenomenological theory of social constructionism. In the study, the structure of identity construction in the Lithuanian women’s novels is compared to the British ones. The following literary analysis allowed to come to a conclusion that the current identity of migrants is not clear, stable and socially recognised. It constantly changes due to the marginal experiences which determine the incomplete legitimation of the living reality. The analysis of literary data suggests that a hypothesis is confirmed. The results show that identity is both individual and social construct emerging as a marginal phenomenon, the reflective self-concept of social relations. The research has also proven that the process of identity and milieu construction consists of the dialectical relationship among externalization, objectivation and internalization. They are determined by the history (biography), language, culture, religion, self-image, family and social relationships, past experiences of the novels’ heroes. The analysis of Rykštaitė’s novel Kostiumų drama and Fomina’s novel Mes vakar buvom saloje revealed the problematicality of emigrants’ everyday life and the features of construction of resistance identity. The interpretation of Ali’s novel Brick Lane allowed to find out the tendencies of construction of project identity in the immigrants’ everyday life. The adapted theory of social constructionism to the analysis and interpretation of Jazukevičiūtė’s novel Dviejų mėnulių baras and Mendelson’s novel Almost English helped to reveal the zero space state and the impact of institutional arrangements on the migrants’ everyday life. In both literatures the women writers depict the processes of identity formation in the migrants’ everyday life. In contrast to the British novels (written by Ali and Mendelson), the Lithuanian women writers (Jazukevičiūtė, Rykštaitė and Fomina) represent it in a more complex way: it lasts longer, is fragmentary or even intermittent. Only a small part of Lithuanian and British women’s novels related to the topic of migration was included in the analysis. It is evident that the present results can be refined, interpreted and modified. Accordingly, this work might be continued by applying the greater scope of analysis and interpretation. |
