Multiculturalism and Hybridity in Zadie Smith’s Novels
Multiculturalism and Hybridity in Zadie Smith’s Novels
Author(s): Catalina StanislavSubject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Sociology
Published by: Editura Universitatii LUCIAN BLAGA din Sibiu
Keywords: Zadie Smith; hybridity; multiculturalism; plotless; discrimination; personal history; posthumanism; 21st century literature
Summary/Abstract: This essay analyzes three novels by Zadie Smith in terms of content, influences and critical perception. My aim is to explore these novels and show how construction of characters, the depiction of the day to day life of banal existences, the disconnectedness that sometimes arrives in mid-life, issues of race and discrimination are a substitute for plot. Smith tends to do something new with every novel she writes, but she still has a couple of recurring themes and elements. Thus, through a comparison of the three novels, I will illustrate how Zadie Smith’s narrative, through its influences and its construction of characters offers the perfect example of “plotless” fiction, as well as how this type of novel is more permissive in terms of style and more open to experimentation than novels with well-delimited plots.
Journal: East-West Cultural Passage
- Issue Year: 17/2017
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 112-132
- Page Count: 21
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF