Multiculturalism: Identity, Language and Culture in Zadie Smith's White Teeth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61841/5ekze647Keywords:
White Teeth, Multiculturalism, identity, languageAbstract
This paper aims at examining the specific meaning of multiculturalism, identity, language, and culture in Zadie Smith’s White, her debut novel. Smith depicts a clear picture of the multicultural society of Britain in general and London in particular. However, the paper studies the ways in which Smith’s novel transcends and promotes the limitations of black women. The study investigates how multicultural society of Britain is drawn through the role of each character in the novel; therefore, it shows the complex construction of identity created by Smith to illustrate the relationship built by different races, languages, and religions. The paper also examines how Zadie Smith in her use of language integrates the linguistic process that existed in the intercultural experiences of both the characters and the author herself. Smith highlights the reality of living in a postmodern world; she also makes her; characters interact with each other as they live exactly the real meaning of life. Therefore. her runway success pushed the young writer to the central mainstream of attention.
Downloads
References
Auer, P. (ed.). (1998). Code-switching in Conversation. Language, Interaction and
Identity .London: Routledge .
Ball, J.C.(2004). Imagining London: Postcolonial Fiction and the Transnational.
Metropolis. Toronto; Buffalo: Universty of Toronto Press .
Bruce, K.. (2001).“Review.” World Literature Today, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 116-117
Cynthia, J. (2007). "You'll Soon Get Used to Our Language': Language,
Parody and West Indian Identity in Andrea Levy's Small Island,"
Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal 5.1 (Spring 2007),
Retrieved from: http://anthurium.miami.edu/volume_5/issue_1/jameslanguage.html (accessed 24 November 2019)
Di Martino, E. & Di Sabato, B. (2014).Studying Language through Literature: An
Old Perspective Revisited and Something More. Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Favell, A.(2001). Philosophies of Integration. Immigration and the Idea of
Citizenship in France and Britain (second ed.), New York: Palgrave in
association with Centre for .Research in Ethnic Relations, University of
Warwick .
Hall, S.(2000). "Conclusion: The multicultural question", in B. Hesse (Ed.),
Unsettled .Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, Transruptions,
London: Zed Books .
Head, D. (2003). Contemporary British Fiction. Cambridge: Polity Press
Moss, L.(2001). "The Politics Everyday Hybridity: Zadie Smith’s White Teeth".
Wasafiri .print. Nation. Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Cooperation 17-
11:(2003) 18.39 /MULLAN, J. 2002. “After Post-Colonialism.” The
Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk .print/0,,4521793-110738,00.html
Muller, G. (1999). New Strangers in Paradise. The Immigrant Experience and
Contemporary American Fiction. Lexington: The University of Kentucky
Press.
O’Rourke, M. (2000). "Fiction in Review". The Yale Review, Vol. 88, No.3:
PP.159-170.
Perfect, M.(2016).Contemporary Multicultural Fictions. Palgrave Macmillan
Pokrivč, A.(2010). Literature and Culture. UKF Nitra, Slovak .
Smith, Zadie. (2000).White Teeth: A Novel. New York: Random House, Amazon Kindl.
Vertovec, S. & Wessendorf, S. (2010). The Multiculturalism Backlash: European. Discourses, Policies and Practices, London: Routledge
Wilson, J. & Ringrose, C.(2016). New Soundings in Postcolonial Writing: Critical and .Creative Contours. Leiden and Boston: Brill/Rodopi
Wood, J. (2000). "Human, All Too Inhuman: The Smallness of the ‘Big’ Novel". Review .of White Teeth, by Zadie Smith. The New Republic www.blogs.sed.qmul.ac.uk
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 AUTHOR
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
