Cityscapes in Zadie Smith’s NW

The article focuses on the manner in which the space of the city is employed in Zadie Smith’s NW so as to reveal not only a cosmopolitan map of contemporary London, but also to draw a map of the journey of the contemporary individual in finding himself/herself. Smith adopts in NW an experimental man...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCultural perspectives no. 25
Main Authors Suciu, Andreia Irina, Culea, Mihaela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Alma Mater Publishing House 2020
Editura Alma Mater
Subjects
British Literature
Fiction
Gender Studies
Identity of Collectives
Language and Literature Studies
Literary Texts
Novel
Psychology
Psychology of Self
Social Sciences
Sociology
mobility
text
city
identity
selffashioning of self
space
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Summary:The article focuses on the manner in which the space of the city is employed in Zadie Smith’s NW so as to reveal not only a cosmopolitan map of contemporary London, but also to draw a map of the journey of the contemporary individual in finding himself/herself. Smith adopts in NW an experimental manner of introducing the contemporary individual in a strongly cartographied space both at the level of the city and at the level of the body of the text. Thus, through the space of North West London, the author speaks about family, social class, (inter-racial, marital) relationships, (complying or not with) gender roles (and dealing with the defiance against such roles), mobility (at the level of the cityscapes and at the level of the mindscapes), community and possibilities (and impossibilities) of belonging.
ISSN:1224-239X
2559-3439