Multiculturalism and Identity Erosion in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

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Kara M.

ÇANKAYA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (CUJHSS), cilt.19, sa.2, ss.393-405, 2025 (TRDizin)

Özet

While multiculturalism is widely accepted in numerous nations, it may be regarded as a threat to an individual’s national, cultural, and personal identity, irrespective of their place of birth. This negating property is further exacerbated when one resides in countries governed by imperial administrations. In her novel White Teeth, Zadie Smith explores the ramifications of diversity in imperial Britain by analysing the themes of segregation and categorization, encompassing distinctions predicated on race, gender, cultural sophistication, and religious convictions, including categories such as black and white, male and female, cultivated and primordial, as well as secular and religious. This article endeavours to evaluate the impact of diversity on national, cultural, and individual identity through an analysis of the dispersed identities of different generations depicted in Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth, a narrative replete with binary oppositions and bipolarities that underscore the pervasive authority of standardized English classifications within a multicultural society.