Research Information System
Other, pp.1-139, 2017
This study examines the processes of identity construction of the characters in Zadie Smith's White Teeth. After the Second World War, immigrants who settled down in the West for a bright future faced identity crises. This thesis mainly argues that an alternative identity has become essential during postcolonial period when the effects of othering and colonialist discourse still prevail. The colonizer have regarded the concepts of multiculturalism and cultural diversity which are brought by postcolonialism as a threat to social solidarity. Immigrants who appear as failures for not transforming hybridity into an alternative identity have become stuck in meaninglessness of existence and cultural emptiness in their contemporary society. The thesis analyses cultural, national, cosmopolitan, diasporic, hybrid and modern identities within the context of alternative postcolonial identity construction. Identities which prioritise some strands such as race, ethnicity, regions and roots over changing social circumstances are named as exclusive identities. On the other hand, identities which emphasize fluidity without rejecting these strands are inclusive. Additionally, the roles that Bhabha's hybridity and mimicry play in constructing an alternative identity is reflected. Immigrants with alternative identities are able to construct the present and the future without aggrandizing or disregarding their roots. Key Words: Alternative identity construction, postcolonialism, exclusive and inclusive identity