Zadie Smith: Critical Essays

by Tracey L. Walters (Editor)

Zadie Critical Essays is a timely collection of critical articles examining how Zadie Smith’s novels and short stories interrogate race, postcolonialism, and identity. Essays explore the various ways Smith approaches issues of race, either by deconstructing notions of race or interrogating the complexity of biracial identity; and how Smith takes on contemporary debates concerning notions of Britishness, Englishness, and Black Britishness. Some essays also consider the shifting identities adopted by those who identify with both British and West Indian, South Asian, or East Asian ancestry. Other essays explore Smith’s contemporary postcolonial approach to Britain’s colonial legacy, and the difference between how immigrants and first-generation British-born children deal with cultural alienation and displacement. This thought-provoking collection is a much-needed critical tool for students and researchers in both contemporary British literature and Diasporic literature and culture.

Genres: Essays

221 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Honey Rand]

This was an audiobook. Normally I don't like authors to read their own stuff. Normally I don't care for British accents. In this case, Zadie read her work and it was good. Written with pandemic highlights, Zadie's own voice is very different from the characters in her novels. Zadie gives insight into her experience. She is black so we get a bit of a reveal about that unique experience even as she tells us that she is privileged.

[Katharine]

Needs an editor! Warbled on. Sometimes interestingly (The Bathroom). Sometimes as a manifesto against some hated entity (zuckerburg).