A multicultural world in flux. Geographies of identity with Zadie Smith - Alina-Elena Onet

Zadie Smith depicts in her novels an essentially multicultural and intercultural world in flux an ever-changing geography of fluctuating unstable identities. Few things are certain or reliable in this shifting landscape apart from brief glimpses of genuine human connection which most of the time materializes not as romantic love marriage or parental affection but as the friendship between two usually mixed-race women. Identity is one of the most unstable things in Smith s narrations subjected to constant re-evaluation and re-definition. The geography of external spaces and microcosms the impersonal postmodern metropolis the internal distortion of characters create a chaotic image of prejudice misunderstanding mis-communication and fragmentation. Occasionally they also offer glimpses of albeit fleeting harmony and connection. Alina-Elena Onet