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The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology, 2020, 2(8); doi: 10.25236/FSST.2020.020809.

Swinging Identity in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time

Author(s)

Xiong Li 1,2

Corresponding Author:
Xiong Li
Affiliation(s)

1 School of foreign languages, jiujiang university, Jiujiang Jiangxi, China

2 Dong-A University, Busan, South Korea


Abstract

Identity construction is one of the most sensitive issues immigrant groups need to face. Zadie Smith shows us a multi-dimensional scene of the status quo and crisis of immigrant groups’ identity in contemporary British society from multiple perspectives in Swing Time. Through the analysis of the first-person protagonist’s identity construction, this article see from different levels that the root of the identity crisis is that when the narrator is facing the multicultural society, due to the influence of the family and the deviation of personal understanding, she can never establish a tolerant and moderate attitude. From the standpoint of a diaspora individual, Smith emphasizes the importance of open mind and inclusive mind through the failure of the identity construction of the protagonist in this novel.

Keywords

Zadie smith, Swing time, Diaspora, Community, Identity construction

Cite This Paper

Xiong Li. Swinging Identity in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology (2020) Vol. 2 Issue 8: 45-47. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2020.020809.

References

[1] Castells, Manuel (2010). The Power of Identity. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

[2] Charles, Ron (2016). “‘Swing Time’: Zadie Smith’s Sweeping Novel about Friendship, Race and Class”. Web. 9 Nov.

[3] Etzioni, Amitai (1993). The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities, and the Communitarian Agenda. New York: Crown Publishers, 1993.

[4] Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”. Identity: Community, Culture, Difference. Ed. Jonathan Rutherford. London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 222-237.

[5] Quabeck, Franziska (2018). A Kind of Shadow’: Mirror Images and Alter Egos in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time. ZAA 2018; 66 (4). Eds. Michael Butter, Lars Eckstein, Joachim Frenk. Berlin: De Gruyter.

[6] Smith, Zadie (2017). Swing Time. New York: Penguin Books.

[7] Tew, Philip (2013). “Celebrity, Suburban Identity and Transatlantic Epiphanies: Reconsidering Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man”. Reading Zadie Smith: The First Decade and Beyond. Ed. Philip Tew. London: Bloomsbury.