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Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
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Shifting Identity/Shifting Discourse: Re‐Naming In Contemporary Literature By Zadie Smith, Jeffrey Eugenides, And Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Krengel
Shifting Identity/Shifting Discourse: Re‐Naming In Contemporary Literature By Zadie Smith, Jeffrey Eugenides, And Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Krengel
Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects
Re‐naming one’s self is an empowering act of self‐definition; re‐naming others is an attempt to codify, contain and censure identity. Re‐naming emerges as a compelling theme in contemporary transnational literature, appearing in three notable texts: Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000), Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex (2002) and Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton (2012). These texts depict stories of diaspora, the forced migration or dispersal away from a homeland. Communities of diaspora negotiate between two cultures: an originary culture and the culture of the new geographic location. From these negotiations emerge a third, hybridized identity that reimagines the majority culture and challenges structural …