Exploring Hybridity and Multiculturalism: Intra and Inter Family Relations in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

Abstract

La primera novela de Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000), ha sido considerada como ejemplo del multiculturalismo y de la pluralidad que caracterizan hoy en día a la ciudad de Londres. Este artículo estudia los modos en los que los personajes de White Teeth negocian un sentido de pertenencia e identidad y establecen y/o transgreden fronteras espaciales dentro de dicha localización. Este trabajo analiza también la identidad híbrida de los personajes y el carácter maleable que tiene tal espacio multicultural a través del análisis de las relaciones inter- e intra-familiares que se representan en la novela.Abstract:Zadie Smith’s fi rst novel White Teeth (2000) has been analysed as an example of the diverse and multicultural society of the present-day city of London. This essay studies the way in which characters in White Teeth negotiate a sense of belonging and identity and how boundaries are established, and/or violated within that location. It also analyses the characters’ hybrid identities and the malleable aspect of that multicultural social space by focusing on the ways Smith depicts spatial confi gurations of inter and intra family life.

Issue of Race in White Teeth

“…(Smith, 2001:16) It is hard to find any other examples that celebrate the cultural, racial and religious differences other than this. In this respect, Fernández's (2009) claim, "There is a "celebratory" attitude towards multicultural relations in the novel" ( 145) is unsubstantial. There is a flood of different cultures but there is not any celebration of cultural differences.…”

A Study of Negotiation in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

“…Irene Pérez Fernández (2009) studied how characters in White Teeth negotiated a sense of belonging and identity. He argued that cultural diversity and hybridity were fully manifested in the characters in White Teeth.…”

Narrative and the mapping of Diaspora Space: Liminalities and subjectivities in the ‘Happy Multicultural Land’ of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

“…Within narrative space, it is never completely clear where one mental or linguistic representation ends and another begins. The centrality of the spatial dimension in the novel is underlined by Fernández (2009a: 143–4): ‘The metropolis is the backdrop that channels social interaction and becomes the primary space of possibility; a place where a homogeneous and united view of “Britishness” is challenged and where contesting spatial representations materialise’.…”

“…This pluralistic view exposes the limits of inclusion in the spaces of the multicultural society as well as novelistic narrative. As Fernández (2009a: 148) puts it, the novel ‘moves away from such a binary tendency of thinking about who is considered to be inside or outside the realm of British identity by further exploring the outcomes of multicultural interaction’. With the help of pluralization of representing perspectives in the novel, Britishness resists essentialism and reduction.…”