The 21st Century Comedy of White Teeth
Contents
1. Polyglot Plot
1.1. Flexible omniscient narrator
1.2. Forwarded Reversals
2. Transnational Locations
2.1. Colours of Culture
2.2. Irish Storytelling
2.3. Transcultural Veto
3. Comedy
3.1. Generic Gear
3.2. Comedic Crossings
3.2.1. Mad Mary
3.2.2. Arabian Mickey
3.2.3. Samad & Women
3.3. Male Mockery
3.3.1. Anti-hero Archie
3.3.2. Protagonist Samad
3.3.3. Old School
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
"It is useless to base any system on a human being." (Henri Bergson. Laughter. 1900)
White Teeth is both an ample and intense read as well as a bestselling success after its first publication in 2000. It has found its creative way via television adaptation and a four-hour
long theatre play into the school curriculum. In my term paper I will show that White Teeth is a comedy for the 21st century generated through a polyglot plot and transnational locations.
Mostly based on the first half of the novel, it is where I could draw up my hypotheses. Archibald Jones’ and Samad Iqbal’s male friendship is affiliated with society and culture, and therefore useful on reflexion. Their synchronized mid-life crises move towards conflicts exposed in the amusing narrative. Critically user-oriented but limited due to paper-size, I will try to converge to the multilateral scope of new fiction.
While researching secondary literature published in the 2000s about postcolonial and transnational corpora many authors claimed superordinate terminology adhered to Zadie Smith’s début novel White Teeth. Nonetheless, serious analytical debates were missing an
essential genre making literature enjoyable more than ever. In this term paper, my aim is to prove that Zadie Smith escaped the compelling hassle of both a début and millennium novel by jocular updating of contemporary English-speaking literature.
1. Polyglot Plot
The promising twenty-something writer, the English-Jamaican Zadie Smith, was supported by her husband and laywer come poet, the Northern Irish Nick Laird, who published her poetry before her literary fame. She graduated in English literature at Cambridge university with her epic début White Teeth that became a sensational best-seller, TV adaptation and theatre play.
Creative writing about deprived war veterans and their respective multicultural families is syncopated by boisterous jokes. I will elucidate the transnational comedy that is about to unfold in a 542-paged volume.
[...]
Table of Contents
1. Polyglot Plot
1.1. Flexible omniscient narrator
1.2. Forwarded Reversals
2. Transnational Locations
2.1. Colours of Culture
2.2. Irish Storytelling
2.3. Transcultural Veto
3. Comedy
3.1. Generic Gear
3.2. Comedic Crossings
3.2.1. Mad Mary
3.2.2. Arabian Mickey
3.2.3. Samad & Women
3.3. Male Mockery
3.3.1. Anti-hero Archie
3.3.2. Protagonist Samad
3.3.3. Old School
4. Conclusion
Objectives & Themes
This term paper explores Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth as a defining comedy of the 21st century. The research investigates how Smith utilizes a polyglot narrative and specific transnational locations to transcend the constraints of traditional postcolonial and millennium literature, ultimately proving the novel’s enduring relevance through its unique blend of humor, irony, and sociocultural commentary.
- The evolution and function of the flexible omniscient narrator.
- The representation of London as a transnational, multicultural space.
- The use of "comedy of humours" and structural irony to critique social hierarchies.
- The intersection of postcolonial discourse, gender dynamics, and migration.
- The subversion of traditional character roles through the lens of the "anti-hero."
Auszug aus dem Buch
1.1. Flexible omniscient narrator
Taking the preface ‘What’s past is prologue’ from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the overture of an attempted suicide, the atmosphere is set for a philological challenge on readers’ entertainment. Zadie Smith does not simply tell from a third-person, omniscient point of view “written in accord with the convention that the narrator knows everything that needs to be known about the agents, actions, and events, and has privileged access to the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and motives” (Abrams 301 f.). She infiltrates into an intrusive narrator “who not only reports, but also comments on and evaluates the actions and motives of the characters, and sometimes expresses personal views about human life.” Moreover, a transnational dash to the dialogical criticism of Bakhtin is done, in a polyphonic tradition of Dostoyevsky’s tradition, “in which the characters are liberated to speak 'a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses'” (Abrams 86). Furthermore, Bakhtin’s “carnivalesque” marks the generic core that made me decide upon dubbing White Teeth a Second Millennium Comedy.
Summary of Chapters
1. Polyglot Plot: Introduces the novel's thematic scope, focusing on the narrator's unique voice and the historical, transnational timeline that frames the narrative.
2. Transnational Locations: Analyzes how London serves as a central, contested site where multicultural identities clash and reform against the backdrop of changing urban geography.
3. Comedy: Explores the generic techniques Smith employs, such as the comedy of humours and structural irony, to deconstruct character archetypes and social identity.
4. Conclusion: Synthesizes the findings, arguing that the novel represents a successful prototype of 21st-century fiction by balancing tragic themes with a positive, open-minded comedic approach.
Keywords
White Teeth, Zadie Smith, Transnational Novel, Comedy, Postcolonial Discourse, London, Omniscient Narrator, Multiculturalism, Bakhtin, Carnivalesque, Identity, Satire, Migrant Literature, 21st Century Fiction, Sociology of Literature
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this research paper?
The paper examines Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth, arguing that it functions as a 21st-century comedy through its use of a polyglot plot, transnational settings, and sophisticated narrative techniques.
What are the primary thematic areas explored in the analysis?
The core themes include the role of the narrator, the significance of London as a "megalopolis," the use of classic comedic forms like the "comedy of humours," and the intersection of colonial and postcolonial identities.
What is the main objective or research question?
The objective is to prove that Zadie Smith transcends the traditional expectations of a "debut" or "millennium" novel by using humor to provide an updated, transnational perspective on contemporary English literature.
Which scientific or literary methods are applied?
The author applies literary analysis through the lens of established theories, including Bakhtin’s dialogical criticism and the "carnivalesque," alongside examinations of Dickensian narratology and structural irony.
What is covered in the main body of the work?
The main body breaks down the novel into its generic structure (narrative style), its setting (transnational locations in London), and its character dynamics (male mockery and archetypal figures like the anti-hero Archie).
Which keywords best characterize the paper?
Key terms include Transnational Novel, Comedy, Postcolonial Discourse, Carnivalesque, Multiculturalism, and 21st Century Fiction.
How does the author interpret Archie Jones' character?
Archie Jones is portrayed as a passive anti-hero whose "bad luck" and status as a deculturated English person make him a trope of the British national psyche within a diverse, changing society.
How does the paper relate Samad Iqbal to the broader themes?
Samad is viewed as a protagonist struggling with his own hardened life and religious ties, representing the immigrant's tension between ancestral heritage and the demands of a new, transnational environment.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Joerg Schroeder (Autor:in), 2012, The 21st Century Comedy of 'White Teeth', München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/194532
