Searching For“Light Of One’s Own”

Zadie Smith(1975-)is a Jamaican British female writer,who is a representative of the new generation of British writers.Her work Swing Time published in 2017 focuses on the place of her growth,Northwest London,and uses a first-person perspective to describe the identity construction as well as the hybrid identity characteristics of local immigrants and their descendants.The novel reveals the author’s profound thoughts on various social issues related to identity construction.Identity construction is a core theme of the whole novel.Based on intensive reading and mainly adopting the theoretical framework of identity construction in the context of post-colonialism,the thesis will explain the characters’ problems in identity construction when they confront with cultural differences in Swing Time.Quoted from the novel,titles of the three chapters of the main body are “Reaching to ‘the Light’,” “Standing in the Dim Light,” and “Interplay of Light and Dark” respectively.The first chapter,“Reaching to ‘the Light’”,emphasizes on the legitimizing identity of the narrator,Tracey,and Aimee,aiming to illustrate that if the individuals only pursue the assimilation with the social mainstream and expect to eliminate the differences,their identity construction may end with the feeling of lost and rootlessness.The second chapter,“Standing in the Dim Light” focuses on the resistance identity of the narrator,her mother and Tracey,revealing that the gap between “the One” and “the Other” can be hardly reduced if the individuals turn the original center to a new margin in the construction of resistance identity.Project identity is paid attention to in the third chapter,“Interplay of Light and Dark”,through the analysis of the open endings of the narrator and Tracey as well as the successful identity construction of Fern.It is pointed out that,in the social context with cultural differences,an open and inclusive mind can be helpful for the individuals to confront with the diversity of identities and differences existing in the institutions,and the humane communication with cultural differences is highly appealed for the individuals to seek the self-belongingness and social integration.Basing on the analysis,the thesis focuses on the author’s concern and thinking of the individual’s identity formation and crisis in contemporary British society,and reveals the different attitudes of identity formation,which are pursuing or rejecting the assimilation,as well as the author’s ideal pursuit of constructing the identity in a way of promoting the communication with cultural differences.