A Study Of The Spatial Narrative In Zadie Smith’s Swing Time

Zadie Smith,an outstanding Jamaican-British novelist,is considered one of the most popular young female authors in contemporary Britain.Swing Time,her fifth book,has gained widespread attention from readers worldwide since its publication in2016.Swing Time presents the story of Tracey,a young mixed-race black girl with aspirations to be a dancer,and “I,” the anonymous narrator,and their destinies intersect in the 21 st century in the context of immigration.Based on Gabriel Zoran’s spatial narrative as the basic framework and logic,this thesis takes a close reading of the text to study the relationship between the topographical space and the protagonist’s identity crisis,the process of identity construction of the female characters in the chronotopic space,and the literary devices employed by the author in constructing the textual identity in the textual space.The first chapter tries to explore the novel’s protagonist,the unnamed narrator,about her identity crisis in the topographical space—London and the Gambia,West Africa—and the spatial significance behind these spaces.This chapter aims to analyze the interior and exterior realistic spaces in the city of London,and the imaginary spaces of colonizer England and colony West Africa.The dichotomous space aggravates the protagonist’s sense of identity crisis.Therefore,the topographical space has an important influence on the character’s identity construction.The second chapter attempts to focus on the female characters’ multiple identity construction in the chronotopic space in the novel.On the synchronic level in the chronotopic space,this thesis presents the different states of the female characters in constructing their identities.In the different spaces,the female characters make a series of different attempts and efforts to construct their identities which contrast the results of the identity construction of the protagonist.On the diachronic level in the chronotopic space,this thesis presents the results of the identity construction of the protagonist during her spatial journey from the small town to the metropolis in terms of gender,culture and national identity pursuit.The female characters’ attempts at identity construction present the complexity of identity construction.The third chapter intends to concentrate on the uniqueness of the literary devices employed by the author to express the complexity of the protagonist’s quest for textual identity construction in the textual space.The textual space is relevant to the construction of the protagonist’s textual identity on three levels.First,the imagery is an important medium for readers to experience the narrator’s inner world in different spaces.Second,the author shows the narrator’s different identity practices in various space by shifting narrative perspectives.Third,spatio-temporal shifting and the circular narrative structure make the novel more spatial.The diary-style narrative mode eases the protagonist’s identity anxiety and guides the protagonist to forget the past and return to her homeland.The thesis concludes that in Swing Time,space is an essential dimension for readers to sense and comprehend the main character’s identity crisis and construction.The space can help the protagonist realize identity crisis and assist her in self-examination to construct her identity while gradually improving herself.