A Study On The Immigrants’ Construction Of Their Cultural Identities In White Teeth

As one of the most influential writers in contemporary Britain,Zadie Smith focuses on the issue of immigrants’ cultural identities in the multicultural British society in her works.This thesis attempts to probe into the immigrants’ construction of their cultural identities in Smith’s representative novel White Teeth from perspectives of Berry’s acculturation theory and Stuart Hall’s cultural identity theory.It intends to reveal that immigrants go through hardships for survival when confronting the racial discrimination and the British xenophobia after World War II.The analysis of the novel begins with a study of three immigrants’ identity crises manifested in Samad’s dilemma between the white culture and the mother culture,Clara’s alienation from the British society and Irie’s blind obsession with the white culture.This thesis explores three immigrants’ rising consciousness of self-identity,which can be found in their challenge to the white culture and their mother culture.These three immigrants choose different strategies such as separation,assimilation and integration to construct their cultural identities so as to adapt themselves to the multicultural British society.Samad separates himself from the white culture and adheres to his mother culture;Clara assimilates herself into the white culture;Irie adopts integration strategy to hybridize both her mother culture and the white culture.This thesis concludes that Smith not only shows concern about immigrants’ living conditions in the multicultural London,but also challenges the rigid idea of a fixed British national identity.Smith offers new solutions for immigrants to construct their cultural identities.