CHANGING PLACES, SHIFTING IDENTITIES: THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY IN THE NOVELS OF V. S. NAIPAUL AND ZADIE SMITH

Date

2023-8

Author

NAMAYANJA, SAIDAH

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Studies related to identity are mostly about the growing multiculturalism that has come to define the world since the latter half of the twentieth century. In this context, certain theories about identity introduce concepts related to hybridity, whereby individuals can have more fluid and flexible identities shifting in line with their environments. This study seeks to investigate the extent to which the characters in The Mimic Men and Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul and White Teeth and On Beauty by Zadie Smith tend to have shifts in identities which may be affected by changes in the places they find themselves in. Using mainly the notion of hybridity as related to postcolonial studies, the dissertation investigates in what ways the characters in these novels succeed or fail to adapt to their multicultural environments through developing hybridized identities. This is done through a textual analytical method, where characters’ responses to the way they are perceived and how they react towards their religious or social bodies are examined as pointers towards identity formation. The study argues that the hybrid identities characters may adopt are in fact suggestive of an unstable position and subject to continuous changes. The study also suggests that, compared to Naipaul, Smith’s characters appear more at ease in adapting to their multicultural environments although their ordeal is also tough and filled with crises. The general findings of the study suggest that in all the novels analyzed, characters’ identities are in a constant shift, turning the question of the search for identity into a constant challenge and a never-ending debate.

Subject Keywords

V. S. Naipaul, Zadie Smith, Identity, Space, Hybridity, Multiculturalsim

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105113

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis