Cours d'anglais IGCSE: étude du poème de Moniza Alvi An unknown girl (document en anglais)

English language IGCSE coursework : Moniza Alvi “An unknown girl”

Moniza Alvi in the poem « An unknown girl » shares her memories of her journey to India with the reader. She explores idea of culture and identity in different ways using metaphors, similes, enjambment and strong imagery. Moniza Alvi born in Pakistan moved to England in her early months and was cut off of her native land. Therefore we can assume she is trying through this poem to express her quest for her lost cultural identity.

In the first part of the poem, Moniza Alvi adopts a Western point of view on the Indian culture. This is shown by Western images such as «She is icing my hand » which refers to the western tradition of icing cakes, and exotic imagery which indicates that India is «unknown » to her « My shadow-stitched kameez » “bazaar”. Moniza Alvi is contrasting both cultures and giving one’s look on the other.

She is also showing Idian’s Westernisation :“with their Western perms”,”Banners for Miss India 1993” are part of the Western culture. Moniza Alvi is therefore denouncing the loss of a country’s culture due to the influence of others countries(By example India’s Westernisation) Alo in the first part of the poem, Moniza Alvi explores the idea of identity by incarnating a tourist, even if her origins are linked to India she is unknown to its culture and she acts like a foreigner. Her contradictory feelings are merely portrayed by the metaphor of the dummies into a culture not quite her own, she is seeking for identity. Hence Moniza Alvi is building the relation between identity and culture, the storyteller (Moniza Alvi) looks lost in this different culture and she is trying to recognize herself in it.

From the breaking point “ I have new brown veins” begins the second part of the poem, as it says in the metaphor below the storyteller in this case the poet herself, has found her identity and recognised herself in the Indian culture. The metaphor ”I have new brown veins might suggest that she now found her Indian blood. From that point on Moniza Alvi explores culture , especially India’s culture from an internal point of view wich means she is considering her as part of this culture. Therefore instead of describing things in an exotic fashion, The storyteller describes us readers, usual events as if she was from the country ”like people who cling/ to the side of a train””Now the furious streets/are hushed”. This has for effect to make the reader travel. Moniza Alvi is trying to get the idea through that to understand foreign cultures you have to enter its origins and judge it as it if was yours. Identity is also explored in a different way in the second part of the poem, therefore the relation between culture and identity is proven as ideas of culture and identity change at the same point. Accordingly the story tellers point of view changes as she identifies herself to the culture. The metaphor “ I have new brown veins” signifies the storyteller’s identification in the culture and to the country which Moniza Alvi is desperate to hold on to. This is shown by the simile “I am clinging/to these firms peacock lines/like people who cling/to the sides of a train/”The peacock lines are representative of her Pakistanis origins which means she is attached to this unknown identity,

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