Difference between revisions of "2007-08 AM Zadie Smith's Multicultural World"

Latest revision as of 12:40, 16 July 2008

• Fridays 12-2pm, in A01 0-004
• Winter Term 2007/08
• Lecturer: Anna Auguscik
• Office Hours: Wed 16-17; A06 2-210b
• Phone.: 789-4541
• E-Mail: anna.auguscik@uni-oldenburg.de

At the age of 21 and still a college student, Zadie Smith had triggered a lively discussion about the surprising advance she was commissioned for the completion of her at the time unfinished first and a planned second novel. Indeed, White Teeth (2000) proved to be a huge success among critics and readers alike, won her both the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award for Best First Book, was translated into over 20 languages and adapted for a television broadcast in 2002. The second novel, The Autograph Man (2002) was less debated but widely considered to be a much more mature piece of literature, which won her the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction and lead to a nomination as Granta's one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Recently, Smith reappeared on the bestseller lists with a novel combining family saga and campus novel: On Beauty (2005) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won both the Orange Prize for Fiction and Somerset Maugham Award in 2006.

Beside her success as a fiction writer, Zadie Smith has contributed as an editor of erotic short stories ("Piece of Flesh", 2001), the author of a book project about writing (Fail Better: The Morality of the Novel, 2009), as well as numerous articles and essays (on Eminem, Katharine Hepburn and E.M. Forster, among others).

The Book of Other People, an new anthology of stories edited by Zadie Smith was published by Hamish Hamilton on 1 Nov 2007.

26-10-2007: Introduction

Topics

• Introduction to programme and requirements
• Questionnaire
• PR: Book covers and author image

02-11-2007: White Teeth

Topics

• Characterisation: Family and friendship
• Guiding of sympathy
• Twins as literary motif

Reading

• Peter Sloterdijk, "Seelenraumteiler: Engel - Zwillinge - Doppelgänger", aus: Sphären I. Blasen. Frankfurt a.M., 1998.

• Presentation: Ellen Quesseleit

• Tracey L. Walters, "'We're All English Now Mate Like It or Lump It': The Black/Britishness of Zadie Smith's White Teeth" (2005)
• Laura Moss, "The Politics of Everyday Hybridity: Zadie Smith's White Teeth" (2003)

Questions

• How are the members of the three main family clans (Iqbal, Jones, Chalfen) characterised?
• Who characterises the protagonists?
• Does it matter that Magid and Millat are twins? Which role does it play in terms of characterisation?
• How is the reader's sympathy guided throughout the novel? Does it change in the course of events?
• Which role do race and culture play in our perception of the characters?

Minutes

• Minutes taken by Monic Fischer
• White Teeth character constellation chart

09-11-2007: White Teeth

Topics

• Narration: Presence and absence
• Language: Speaking Diaspora

Reading

• Angela Walz, Erzählstimmen verstehen (2005), daraus: Kapitel 6 - "Multikulturelles Erzählen in Zadie Smiths White Teeth und Monica Alis feministische Alternative in Brick Lane"
• Christian Mair, "Language, Code, and Symbol: The Changing Roles of Jamaican Creole in Diaspora Communities" (2003)

Questions

• What narratological instances can you define in the novel?
• Can you detect metapoetical allusions in the book?
• What is the effect of the narrator's changing moments of presence and absence?
• How is language used to create atmosphere/authenticity?

Main points

• Hybridity in language: taxing (167) - Mad Mary (176ff) - Samad betrays Western/English influence in his language (407)
• Functions of hybrid language, multicultural Jamaican patois as Black British English: ethnic code (authenticity) and young culture
• Other moments of hybridity: in dress (e.g. Alsana in trainers with African head scarf)
• Original meaning of hybridity: botanic context, see excerpt of Joyce's book on plants
• Non-linear narrative: giving insight into present and past; different localities, omnipresence (e.g. description of similar experiences which Millat and Magid go through despite geographical distance)
• meaning and consequences of using the pronoun "we" - reader and narrator (465) - racist violence against Mo (472) - Millat's world view finally applied to "us" (506f.)
• Final question: Why is White Teeth spoken of as a British novel, not a Black British novel? How does this refer to the construction of literary canons?

16-11-2007: White Teeth

Topics

• Space: Mapping London in the new millennium.

Reading

• Nico Israel, "Tropicalizing London: British Fiction and the Discipline of Postcolonialism" (2006)
• Dominic Head, "Zadie Smith's White Teeth: Multiculturalism for the Millennium" (2003)
• Pirjo Ahokas, "Transcending Binary Divisions: Constructing a Postmodern Female Urban Identity in Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife and Zadie Smith's White Teeth" (2004)
• Pilar Cuder-Domínguez, "Ethnic Cartographies of London in Bernadine Evaristo and Zadie Smith" (2004)
• Doris Bachmann-Medick, Cultural Turns: Neuorientierungen in den Kulturwissenschaften (2006), daraus: Kapitel 6 - "Spatial Turn"

Questions

• Which role does the metropolis play in the novel? (How) does the novel change your image of London?
• Does the novel challenge/invite non-residents or is it directed at London experts?
• Do you know other novels set in London? How do they portray the city in comparison to White Teeth?

Main Ideas

• Centre and margin - postcolonial criticism of binary oppositions, i.e. Willesden as peripheric quarter in London
• London as place, symbol, metaphor, concept: i.e. "Orte/Örter" ~ "Worte/Wörter"
• Mapping: metaphorised pattern of order, i.e. rooms/places are laden with meaning
• Re-mapping und re-writing, i.e. re-writing of literary canon through literary allusions
• Diaspora groups in different nations but same cultural notions, i.e. Jamaican minority
• Simultaneousness of history and space, i.e. list of contents in White Teeth
• To do: read passage showing Magid and Millat in their final discussion (pp.463-466)

23-11-2007: White Teeth

Topics

• Time: History and its re-presentation in fiction.

• Presentation: Katrin Ischebeck

• Discussion of questions/comments as offered in summaries/excerpts of White Teeth

Reading

• James Procter, "New Ethnicities, the Novel, and the Burdens of Representation" (2006)
• Ruth Helyer, "'England as a pure, white Palladian mansion set upon a hill above a silver winding river': Fiction's Alternative Histories" (2006)
• Molly Thompson, "'Happy Multicultural Land'? The Implications of an 'Excess of Belonging' in Zadie Smith's White Teeth" (2005)
• Sigrun Meinig, "'Running at a Standstill': The Paradoxes of Time and Trauma in Zadie Smith's White Teeth" (2004)

Questions

• How is time/history represented in the novel?
• In which time span are Magid and Millat situated when having their last discussion in the study room?
• What are the reasons which cause and enable people like us and Sigrun Meinig to talk about time and trauma in Zadie Smith's White Teeth?

30-11-2007: Excursus on the Bookmarket

Topics

• Novel writing and the book market
• Production: publishers and agents

• Presentation by Hete Malin Möller

• Reception: media reviews, reader's guides, critical writing

• Presentation by Frank Pepplinkhuizen

Reading

• Richard Todd, "Literary Fiction and the Book Trade" (2006)
• Robert Booth, "Publisher's plan could spell the end of the literary hardback," The Guardian November 17, 2007. e-text

Main Idea

• "A book originates with an author and her or his agent; from there it moves on to the publisher who purchases it; from there the publisher attempts to get a return on his or her investment in that purchase by working with (in every sense) the retail arm of the book trade. As we have seen, at this moment in the first decade of the twenty-first century, it is the retailer who is calling the shots, and we have given as the main reason for this state of affairs the abolition of RPM. [...] Contrary to popular belief, reviews appear to make little difference. What does make all the difference [...] [is] 'word of mouth'." (Todd 2006:34)

Minutes

• Minutes taken by Anja Deichmann

Assignment

• Please, find information about one of the following literary prizes until 07-12-2007.
• Consider the following questions: what is the prize's history? who are the sponsors? does the prize have a credo? how often is the prize given away? who is eligible? what are the entry procedures? what is the actual award? is there a shortlist/longlist? when is the winner announced? who was/were the latest winner(s)? is there a homepage?

07-12-2007: The Autograph Man

Topics

• Literature and celebrity culture: interviews, literary awards
• Fictional and historical characters in postmodern fiction.

Reading

• Sukhdev Sandhu, "The Pornography of Fame" (2003) from: Wasafiri 39 (2003 Summer):64-67.

• 64 - Sandhu alludes to a celebrity nude and porn gallery called robbescelebs on the internet, as well as Piece of Flesh, an erotic short story collection edited by Smith to conclude with labelling The Autograph Man as "a kind of porn novel too".
• 65 - "Celebrity, then, is one of the central themes of this novel. Celebrity as a kind of religion." The topic is said to be "only of interest to those novelists afflicted by it."

• James F. English and John Frow, "Literary Authorship and Celebrity Culture" (2006)

• 53 - "Ultimately, what is of interest is not so much the figure of the celebrity in itself but what it can tell us about the shifts in the system of literary value that we have been discussing: the emergence of a new relationship between the aesthetics of the signature and the aesthetics of the brand, and the concomitant opening of new ways for celebrity to be deployed, by authors, publishers, journalists, or others, on the literary field."
• 53 - "In describing the shift from signature to signature/brand, we do not mean to suggest that the system of literary value production boils down to a single tension or struggle between forces of corporate power and those of autonomous aesthetic judgment, or that the scandals attendant on celebrity - which are inherent to its mode of operation - involve no other kinds of ambiguity or crossing over than that between culture and commerce, serious and popular, high and low."

Questions

• Bearing in mind our last session on the book market, where would you place the institution of literary prizes?
• Can you detect different types of literary awards concerning their position on the literary marketplace?
• James F. English and John Frow argue that the literary celebrity has undergone a development from signature to brand name. Can you transfer this concept to your reading of Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man and Alex-Li Tandem's fascination with Kitty Alexander?
• Discuss the following quotations from Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction (1987). Which of the two strategies described, if any at all, does Zadie Smith employ in The Autograph Man?

• McHale argues that traditional historical novels suppress the violations "between characters in their projected worlds and real-world historical figures", while postmodernist historical novels highlight "ontological seams by systematically transgressing these rules". (1987:17)
• "And what exactly is scandal? Ultimately, its source is ontological: boundaries between worlds have been violated. There is an ontological scandal when a real-world figure is inserted in a fictional situation, where he interacts with purely fictional characters […]. There is also an ontological scandal when two real-world figures interact in a fictional context […]. In general, the presence in a fictional world of a character who is transworld-identical with a real-world figure sends shock-waves throughout that world's ontological structure." (1987:85)

14-12-2007: The Autograph Man

Topics

• The Autograph Man as a postmodern novel?
• The function of humour and (postmodern?) irony.

Reading

• Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction (1987)

• 9: "I will formulate it as a general thesis about modernist fiction: the dominant of modernist fiction is epistemological. That is, modernist fiction deploys strategies which engage and foreground questions such as those mentioned by Dick Higgins in my epigraph: 'How can I interpret this world of which I am a part? And what am I in it?' Other typical modernist questions might be added: What is there to be known?; Who knows it?; How do they know it, and with what degree of certainty?; How is knowledge transmitted from one knower to another, and with what degree of reliability?; How does the object of knowledge change as it passes from knower to knower?; What are the limits of the knowable? And so on." The above mentioned questions are handled "through the use of characteristically modernist (or epistemological) devices: the multiplication and juxtaposition of perspectives, the focalization of all the evidence through a single 'center of consciousness' […], virtuoso variants on interior monologue […] ,and so on."
• 10: "This brings me to a second general thesis, this time about postmodernist fiction: the dominant of postmodernist fiction is ontological. That is, postmodernist fiction deploys strategies which engage and foreground questions like the ones Dick Higgins calls 'post-cognitive': 'Which world is this? What is to be done in it? Which of my selves is to do it?' Other typical postmodernist questions bear either on the ontology of the literary text itself or on the ontology of the world which it projects, for instance. What is a world?; What kinds of world are there, how are they constituted, and how do they differ?; what happens when different kinds of world are placed in confrontation, or when boundaries between worlds are violated?; What is the mode of existence of a text, and what is the mode of existence of the world (or worlds) it projects?; How is a projected world structured? And so on."
• 206 - "Transworld identity between real-world persons and fictional characters depends upon identity of proper names; this is part of its definition. What fixes our attention on the ontological boundary is the appearance of a real-world proper name in a fictional context. […] There is, however, a form of autobiographical fiction which preserves much of the ontological force of transworld identity but without reproducing real-world proper names - namely, roman-à-clef. […] Transworld identity between real-world persons and fictional characters has been deliberately occluded, requiring of the reader an act of decoding or decrypting." Postmodernist fiction exploits the ontological potential of roman-à-clef.

• Zoe Williams, "The Final Irony", The Guardian, June 28, 2003

Questions

• Can you detect features of postmodernism in TAM?
• How does humour work in TAM? Can you compare it to WT?

21-12-2007: The Autograph Man

Topics

• Philosophy

• Zen: Presentation by Agata Muni
• Kabbalah Presentation by Deike Heyden

• Novel outline: Collage and typography, Language and dialect, Interaction
• Discussion of questions/comments as offered in summaries/excerpts of The Autograph Man

Questions

• What are the consequences of dividing TAM in two parts: Kabbalah and Zen?
• Can you understand the novel without grasping the concept of the religious/philosophical allusions?
• What is the function of the drawings/typographical specialties? What would happen to the text if these were to be taken out?
• How does the novel call for the reader's interaction with the text?

11-01-2008: On Beauty

Topics

• The themes of family, friendship, love, beauty.

• Presentation Karina Woortmann 13:55, 26 October 2007 (CEST)

Reading

• Fiona Tolan, "Identifying the Precious in Zadie Smith's On Beauty". British Fiction Today. Ed. and introd. Philip Tew and Rod Mengham. London, England: Continuum, 2006. pp. 128-38.

Questions

• Can you describe the different family and friendship structures in On Beauty?
• Are Howard and Kiki in love? How can the question be tackled? And how does the novel challenge the discussion of love?
• How does the text manage to call for a discussion of authenticity/reality/truth in the varied presentations of sexual relations?
• What does beauty mean to each of the characters in the novel?
• Can you structure the novel's debate between an aesthetic and a strategic approach to art/belief/life?
• How does the novel capture and transfer the themes from Zadie Smith's first novel, White Teeth?

To do

• Watch Zadie Smith on Charlie Rose, a television interview show on PBS, Smith starts at 27:30
• Think about the following questions:

• How is the interview structured? When is it most tense? What is the interviewer's perspective on Zadie Smith's person and writing?
• How are the autobiographical references tackled?
• What is an author, a critic, their relation according to Zadie Smith?
• What is our expectation when we meet an author (according to Smith, according to you)?
• Think about the theme of 'greatness' in Smith's responses.

18-01-2008: On Beauty

Topics

• The themes of culture, tradition, religion.

• Presentation by Andrea Nölke

• Discussion of questions/comments as offered in summaries/excerpts of On Beauty

Reading

• Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just (1999)

• Presentation: Daniela Eimertenbrink

• Joan Acoccella. "Connections. Race and Relations in Zadie Smith's New Novel." The New Yorker. October 3, 2005. 99-101.
• the stranger, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at 'On Beauty'" by Christopher Frizelle, from issue on Sep 29 - Oct 5, 2005

Questions

• How do the themes of culture and tradition refer to the themes of family and friendship?
• Concerning Elaine Scarry's On Beauty

• What is Scarry's definition of beauty?
• How does she go about presenting her argument?
• How does Smith's novel refer to Scarry's lectures?

25-01-2007: Excursus on Genre and the Canon

Topics

• Looking for genre: the coinage and function of such terms as "hysterical realism", "historiographic metafiction", "campus novel", "transatlantic comic saga" etc.

• Presentation by Annika Matyssek 10:15, 28 October 2007 (CET) ): PowerPoint, Handout

• Challenging the Canon

Reading

• Bruce Robbins, "What the Porter Saw: On the Academic Novel" (2006)
• Petra Tournay, "Challenging Shakespeare: Strategies of Writing Back in Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Caryl Phillips' The Nature of Blood" (2004)

• (226): "Smith's point, then, is to expose how ethnocentric ideology continues to shape the ways in which Shakespeare's (canonical) work is interpreted and taught, while at the same time - through Irie's reading - she contests and destabilises such conservative interpretations"
• (227): In Phillips's and Smith's writing, Tournay detects a response to "texts which have been interpreted to systematically exclude the other as Zadie Smith convincingly exemplifies in the case of the sonnets addressed to the dark lady"
• (227): "both writers [Smith and Phillips] pursue the common objective of exposing the ways in which the canonical (sacrosanct) text has served and continues to serve as a means of cultural domination and exclusion"

Questions

• What is the function of labels, genres, categories?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of labels for authors/critics?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of establishing a literary canon?
• In which ways are postcolonial texts said to be challenging the canon? What are the potentially subversive methods used?

Group assignment

• Read the Guardian article on establishing a contemporary literary canon, "This term we will be studying Zadie Smith".

• Discuss the term 'posterity' and the different ways to influence it.
• What are the disadvantages/advantages of reading contemporary works of literature instead of the classics?
• Which role/function is assigned to literature in this article?

To do

• Please, read Zadie Smith, "The Zen of Eminem" (2005) in the context of challenging the canon.

01-02-2008: Excursus on Intertextuality

Topics

• The influence or intertextual allusions from Salman Rushdie (in White Teeth), Martin Amis (in The Autograph Man), E.M. Forster (in On Beauty)

• Presentation: Claudia Quante
• Presentation: Britt Viemann

• Recyling: intertextual links to own texts
• Zadie Smith, Piece of Flesh (2001)

• Presentation: Steffi Moik

• evaluation

Reading

• Helga Ramsey-Kurz, "Humouring the Terrorists or the Terrorised? Militant Muslims in Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, and Hanif Kureishi" (2005)

• Presentation: Carsten Richter 13:27, 13 December 2007 (CET)

Questions

• Be aware of the wide range of definitions of 'intertextuality' and 'metatextuality' as presented during the session.
• Can you describe the different kinds of intertextual allusions in Zadie Smith's novels using Gérard Genette's model?
• What is the additional benefit of inserting more or less obvious intertextual allusions into a text?
• Can you detect certain elements/structures which are repeated throughout the three novels?
• What is the consequence of applying humour to serious contemporary debates, i.e. terrorism? Cf. White Teeth and The Satanic Verses as described by Helga Ramsey-Kurz (2005).
• How does Zadie Smith describe her role as an editor of Piece of Flesh (2001) and to what effect?
• What is the difference between pornographic and erotic texts? Is the line to be drawn by asking about the intention of the author, the effect on the reader, or particular structures in the text?
• What makes the stories 'literary'? Is it possible to approach the stories with methods/tools belonging to literary criticism?
• The five short stories were commissioned by the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts). What are the consequences of this?
• How come hardly anyone ever relates to the collection when speaking about Zadie Smith?

To do

• Please, prepare for the final discussion: Watt Mason, "White Knees" (2005) taken from the October 2005 issue from Harper's Magazine

08-02-2008: Final Discussion

Topics

• feedback on evaluation
• discussion of planned seminar papers

Texts

• White Teeth [2000]. London: Penguin Books, 2001.

ISBN 10-014-029778-2 ISBN 13-978-014029778-2

or the cheaper new Penguin edition at the Cvo Unibuch bookshop

• The Autograph Man [2002]. London: Penguin Books, 2003.

ISBN 10-014-027634-3 ISBN 13-978-014027634-3

or the cheaper Vintage edition (2003) at the CvO Unibuch bookshop

• On Beauty [2005]. London: Penguin Books, 2006.

ISBN 10-014-102666-9 ISBN 13-978-014102666-4

Registration and Requirements

• Registration via Stud.IP starts on 23-07-2007 08:00am. Max. 40 students. This Aufbaumodulseminar can be combined with other courses under AM2c, AM3b and AM11.

• Please, read all three novels and prepare a minimum one-page-long summary for each text including a question or comment respectively.

You will all be asked to

• participate in the seminar discussion, take minutes, become a specialist on a chosen topic
• for 3 KP: prepare a short presentation in the form of an ‘invitation to discussion’ that will help you decide on a topic for your subsequent term paper (i.e. you formulate research questions or propositions concerning a particular text and topic, and invite the seminar to discuss them) and
• for additional 3 KP (6 in total): write a research paper

• generally dealing with one or several of the issues raised in your oral contribution or another related topic as discussed with me
• in the process of finding a topic, doing research, writing your paper take a look at the following page: Literary Studies:Writing academic texts
• check the research guide to accumulate information on the status of the literary discussion within the field of your interest
• make excerpts of read material to help your research
• use the style sheet
• length of papers ca. 10-15 pages
• deadline March 1, 2008 in my uni post box or March 15, 2008 via mail
• in each case send an electronic copy via email

Seminar Papers

• "Multiculturalism in White Teeth"

• "Between the pride of great-grandfathers and the fight against Afro hair: Samad Iqbal's and Irie Jones's ethnicity in Zadie Smith's White Teeth"

• "Examining the Trope of Teeth in Zadie Smith's White Teeth: Challenging the German Translation Zähne zeigen"

• "How does Smith's novel refer to Scarry's lectures in view of some of the characters?"

• "The Relationship between Notions of Beauty and the 'Good in Life' in Zadie Smith's On Beauty"

• "Why use humour? Female characters and their presentation of themselves in Zadie Smith's novels"

• "On the possibility of a postmodernist reading of 'Hanwell in Hell' and 'Hanwell Senior' by Zadie Smith."

• "How does Piece of Flesh as a collection of pornographic texts position itself in relation to the debate 'Sexuality and Power'?"

• "Piece of Flesh – Pornographic Literature put on Test"

• "A novel - 'a two-way street'? Zadie Smith's contribution to the literary debate on authorship and readership"

Further Reading

• Bentley, Nick. "Re-writing Englishness: Imagining the Nation in Julian Barnes's England, England and Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Textual Practice, 21:3 (2007 Sept), pp. 483-504.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975-): White Teeth (2000); novel; narrative form; treatment of multiculturalism; national identity; compared to Barnes, Julian (1946-): England, England (1998).]

• Korte, Barbara. "Blacks and Asians at War for Britian: Reconceptualisations in the Filmic and Literary Field?." Journal for the Study of British Cultures, 14:1 (2007), pp. 29-39.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975-): White Teeth (2000); novel; treatment of blacks; Asians; relationship to British Armed Forces; compared to Levy, Andrea (1956-): Small Island (2004); Stellman, Martin (1948-): For Queen and Country (1988). Dramatic arts; film; treatment of blacks; Asians; relationship to British Armed Forces; in Stellman, Martin (1948-): For Queen and Country (1988) compared to Smith, Zadie (1975-): White Teeth (2000); Levy, Andrea (1956-): Small Island (2004).]

• Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 2007.

[Subject Terms: British and Irish literatures; and English Caribbean literature; by writers of color; 1900-1999; role of diaspora; transnationalism; relationship to identity politics; postcolonial approach; cultural studies approach.]

• Walters, Tracey L. "Music and Metafiction: Aesthetic Strategies in Black British Writing". Arana, R. Victoria (ed. and introd.). "Black" British Aesthetics Today. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2007. pp. 101-18.

[Subject Terms: Scottish literature; 1900-1999; Kay, Jackie (1961-): Trumpet (1998); novel; by black novelists; narrative technique; relationship to music; metafiction; compared to Smith, Zadie (1975-): The Autograph Man (2002); Evaristo, Bernardine (1959-): The Emperor's Babe (2001).]

• Sommer, Roy. "The Aesthetic Turn in 'Black' Literary Studies: Zadie Smith's On Beauty and the Case for an Intercultural Narratology." Arana, R. Victoria (ed. and introd.). "Black" British Aesthetics Today. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2007. pp. 176-92.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): On Beauty (2005); novel; by black novelists; treatment of aesthetics; relationship to literary studies; cross-cultural values; narratology.]

• Thomas, Susie. "Zadie Smith's False Teeth: The Marketing of Multiculturalism." Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London, 4:1 (2006 Mar), p. 17 paragraphs. Electronic publication

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975-): White Teeth (2000); novel; relationship to national culture; multiculturalism; sources in Kureishi, Hanif (1954-).]

• Childs, Elaine. "Insular Utopias and Religious Neuroses: Hybridity Anxiety in Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 23:1 (2006 Spring), pp. 7-12.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; treatment of hybridity; relationship to religion; difference.]

• Tolan, Fiona. "Identifying the Precious in Zadie Smith's On Beauty." Tew, Philip (ed. and introds.) and Mengham, Rod (ed. and introds.). British Fiction Today. London, England: Continuum, 2006. pp. 128-38.)

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): On Beauty; novel; treatment of aesthetic values.]

• Helyer, Ruth. "'England as a pure, white Palladian mansion set upon a hill above a silver winding river': Fiction's Alternative Histories." Burden, Robert (ed. and introd.) and Kohl, Stephan (ed.). Landscape and Englishness. Spatial Practices: An Interdisciplinary Series in Cultural History, Geography, Literature. 1. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2006. pp. 243-60.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; treatment of national identity; relationship to abjection; colonialism; the other; compared to Rushdie, Salman (1947- ); The Ground beneath Her Feet (1999).]

• McEwan, Ian. "Zadie Smith [English Novelist, born 1975]." Believer, 3:6 (2005 Aug), pp. 47-64.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ); interview; 2005.]

• Furman, Andrew. "The Jewishness of the Contemporary Gentile Writer: Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man." MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 30:1 (2005 Spring), pp. 3-17.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): The Autograph Man (2002); novel; treatment of Jewish identity; role of ethnic identity; of writer.]

• Glasgow, Melita and Fletcher, Don. "Palimpsest and Seduction: The Glass Palace and White Teeth." Kunapipi: Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 27:1 (2005), pp. 75-87. Scanned article

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; postcolonial novel; relationship to palimpsest; compared to Ghosh, Amitav (1956- ); The Glass Palace (2001). Indian literature; English language literature; 1900-1999; Ghosh, Amitav (1956- ); The Glass Palace (2001); novel; postcolonial novel; relationship to palimpsest; compared to Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000).]

• Walz, Angela. Erzählstimmen verstehen: Narrative Subjektivität im Spannungsfeld von Trans/Differenz am Beispiel zeitgenössischer britischer Schriftstellerinnen. Erlanger Studien zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik. 7. Münster, Germany: LIT, 2005.

[Subject Terms: Scottish literature; 1900-1999; Galloway, Janice (1956- ): The Trick Is to Keep Breathing (1989); novel; postcolonial novel; by feminist women novelists; subjective narrative; compared to Winterson, Jeanette (1959- ); Written on the Body (1992); Kay, Jackie (1961- ); Trumpet (1998); Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000); Ali, Monica (1967- ); Brick Lane (2003).]

• Childs, Peter. Contemporary Novelists: British Fiction since 1970. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 1900-1999; novel; 1970-2003.]

• Moore-Gilbert, Bart. "Postcolonialism and 'The Figure of the Jew': Caryl Phillips and Zadie Smith." Acheson, James (ed. and introd.) and Ross, Sarah C. E. (ed. and introd.). The Contemporary British Novel since 1980. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. pp. 106-17.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 1900-1999; Phillips, Caryl (1958- ); novel; postcolonial novel; treatment of Jews; compared to Smith, Zadie (1975- ).]

• Thompson, Molly. "'Happy Multicultural Land'? The Implications of an 'Excess of Belonging' in Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Sesay, Kadija (ed. and introd.) and Young, Lola (foreword). Write Black, Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature. Hertford, England: Hansib, 2005. pp. 122-40.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; by black novelists; treatment of belonging; relationship to multiculturalism; uncertainty.]

• Smith, Zadie. "Zadie Smith Talks with Ian McEwan." . Vida, Vendela (ed.). The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. San Francisco, CA: Believer, 2005. pp. 207-39.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 1900-1999; McEwan, Ian (1948- ); interview.]

• Walters, Tracey L. "'We're All English Now Mate Like It or Lump It': The Black/Britishness of Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Sesay, Kadija (ed. and introd.) and Young, Lola (foreword). Write Black, Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature. Hertford, England: Hansib, 2005. pp. 314-22.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; treatment of black experience; in Great Britain; relationship to cultural diversity.]

• Ramsey-Kurz, Helga. "Humouring the Terrorists or the Terrorised? Militant Muslims in Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, and Hanif Kureishi." Reichl, Susanne (ed. and introd.) and Stein, Mark (ed. and introd.). Cheeky Fictions: Laughter and the Postcolonial. Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft. 91. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2005. pp. 73-86.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 1900-1999; Kureishi, Hanif (1954- ): "My Son the Fanatic"; short story; treatment of terrorism; relationship to humor; compared to Rushdie, Salman (1947- ); The Satanic Verses (1988); Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000). Indian literature; English language literature; 1900-1999; Rushdie, Salman (1947- ); The Satanic Verses (1988); novel; treatment of terrorism; relationship to humor; compared to Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000); Kureishi, Hanif (1954- ); "My Son the Fanatic".]

• Dyer, Rebecca. "Generations of Black Londoners: Echoes of 1950s Caribbean Migrants' Voices in Victor Headley's Yardie and Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, 5:2 (2004 Fall-Winter), pp. 81-102.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; by black novelists; treatment of Caribbean immigrants; in London; relationship to generation gap; British colonialism; compared to Headley, Victor (1959- ); Yardie (1992).]

• Cuder-Domínguez, Pilar. "Ethnic Cartographies of London in Bernadine Evaristo and Zadie Smith." European Journal of English Studies, 8:2 (2004 Aug), pp. 173-88.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 1900-1999; Evaristo, Bernardine (1959- ): Lara (1997); The Emperor's Babe (2001); poetry; treatment of English identity; relationship to multiethnic identity; in London; compared to Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000).]

• Goldblatt, Patricia. "School Is Still the Place: Stories of Immigration and Education." MultiCultural Review, 13:1 (2004 Spring), pp. 49-54.

[Subject Terms: American literature; 1900-1999; Boyle, T. Coraghessan (1948- ): The Tortilla Curtain (1995); novel; treatment of cultural differences; relationship to education; compared to Lahiri, Jhumpa (1967- ); Interpreter of Maladies (1999); Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000).]

• Ahokas, Pirjo. "Transcending Binary Divisions: Constructing a Postmodern Female Urban Identity in Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife and Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Boelhower, William (ed. and introd.), Davis, Rocío G. (ed. and introd.) and Birkle, Carmen (ed. and introd.). Sites of Ethnicity: Europe and the Americas. American Studies: A Monograph Series. 119. Heidelberg, Germany: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2004. pp. 115-29.

[Subject Terms: American literature; 1900-1999; Erdrich, Louise (1954- ): The Antelope Wife (1998); novel; treatment of female identity; urban identity; ethnic identity; compared to Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000).]

• Tournay, Petra. "Challenging Shakespeare: Strategies of Writing Back in Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Caryl Phillips' The Nature of Blood." Onega, Susana (ed. and introd.) and Gutleben, Christian (ed. and introd.). Refracting the Canon in Contemporary British Literature and Film. Postmodern Studies. 35. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2004. pp. 207-29.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; by black novelists; compared to Phillips, Caryl (1958- ); The Nature of Blood (1997); intertextuality; with Shakespeare, William (1564-1616).]

• Meinig, Sigrun. "'Running at a Standstill': The Paradoxes of Time and Trauma in Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Glomb, Stefan (ed. and foreword) and Horlacher, Stefan (ed. and foreword). Beyond Extremes: Repräsentation und Reflexion von Modernisierungsprozessen im zeitgenössischen britischen Roman. Mannheimer Beiträge zur Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft. 61. Tübingen, Germany: Narr, 2004. pp. 241-57.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; paradox; treatment of time; trauma; relationship to postcolonialism.]

• Gerzina, Gretchen Holbrook. "Zadie Smith". Nasta, Susheila (ed. and introd.). Writing across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk. London, England: Routledge, 2004. pp. 266-78.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ); interview; 2000.]

• Moss, Laura. "The Politics of Everyday Hybridity: Zadie Smith's White Teeth." Wasafiri: The Transnational Journal of International Writing, 39 (2003 Summer), pp. 11-17.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; relationship to hybridity; postcolonialism.]

• Mair, Christian. "Language, Code, and Symbol: The Changing Roles of Jamaican Creole in Diaspora Communities." Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 28:2 (2003), pp. 231-48.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; treatment of linguistic variation; multiculturalism; in London; compared to Adebayo, Diran (1968- ); Some Kind of Black (1996); relationship to Caribbean diaspora; electronic discussion groups. English language (Modern); Jamaican English Creole language; pragmatics; code switching; in electronic discussion groups; relationship to multiculturalism; in London; in Adebayo, Diran (1968- ); Some Kind of Black (1996); Smith, Zadie (1975- ); White Teeth (2000).]

• Head, Dominic. "Zadie Smith's White Teeth: Multiculturalism for the Millennium." Lane, Richard J. (ed., introd., and glossary), Mengham, Rod (ed. and general introd.) and Tew, Philip (ed., introd., and glossary). Contemporary British Fiction. Cambridge, England: Polity, 2003. pp. 106-19.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; treatment of multiculturalism; relationship to British identity; racial consciousness.]

• Westman, Karin E. "Anatomy of a Dust Jacket: Deracination and and British Identity in Zadie Smith's White Teeth", Globalization and the Image II, The Global Image, 2002 MLA Convention, New York City, NY, 30 December 2002. e-text

• O'Grady, Kathleen. "White Teeth: A Conversation with Author Zadie Smith." Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal/Revue d'Etudes sur les Femmes, 27:1 (2002 Fall), pp. 105-11.

[Subject Terms: English literature; 2000-2099; Smith, Zadie (1975- ): White Teeth (2000); novel; interview.]

Links

• Zadie Smith at Contemporary Writers
• Wikipedia Article on Zadie Smith
• Zadie Smith discusses On Beauty on Charlie Rose, a television interview show on PBS, Smith starts at 27:30
• Zadie Smith discusses White Teeth on Charlie Rose, a television interview show on PBS
• Interview with Zadie Smith in Stockholm, 2006
• Zadie Smith: How to Fail Better, recorded live at the 2006 New Yorker Festival in New York City free sample
• Zadie Smith, White Teeth at Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English includes articles on "White Teeth: The story of the postcolonial expatriate" and "Teeth as Symbol"