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Colonialism, Power and Resistance in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth


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1 McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
     

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This essay attempts to analyze the colonial histories depicted in Zadie Smith's White Teeth by considering them alongside Michel Foucault's lectures on biopolitics. It also aims to contextualize some of the historical threads in the text in order to highlight some of the ways that power and resistance are performed in the fictional narrative. This will uncover important themes in White Teeth that help to identify how apparatuses of power and resistance function in the narrative, linking colonial history with contemporary multiculturalism.

Keywords

Colonialism, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, Biopolitics, Race, Identity, Power, Eugenics.
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  • Colonialism, Power and Resistance in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

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Authors

Ciyiltepe Tan
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Abstract


This essay attempts to analyze the colonial histories depicted in Zadie Smith's White Teeth by considering them alongside Michel Foucault's lectures on biopolitics. It also aims to contextualize some of the historical threads in the text in order to highlight some of the ways that power and resistance are performed in the fictional narrative. This will uncover important themes in White Teeth that help to identify how apparatuses of power and resistance function in the narrative, linking colonial history with contemporary multiculturalism.

Keywords


Colonialism, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, Biopolitics, Race, Identity, Power, Eugenics.

References