‘In Drag’: Performativity and Authenticity in Zadie Smith’s "NW"

‘In Drag’: Performativity and Authenticity in Zadie Smith’s "NW"

authenticity

performativity

neocolonialism

intersectionality

Zadie Smith’s latest novel, NW, presents a multiverse in chich multiplicity is driven into homogeneization by the forces of those dominant discourses that attempt to suppress the category of the “Other.” This paper focuses on the development of the two female protagonists. Their opposing attitudes towards motherhood, together with their confrontation with their origins, bring to the fore the performativity found in the discourses of gender, sexuality, class, and race. Thus, this paper will explore authenticity and performativity in a contemporary context, where patriarchal and neocolonial discourses still apply.

Pérez Zapata, Beatriz

International Studies. Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal; Vol. 16 No. 1 (2014); 83-95

International Studies. Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal; Tom 16 Nr 1 (2014); 83-95

2300-8695

1641-4233

Lodz University Press

2014-09-25

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion