History, multiculturalism and hybridity in Zadie Smith’s novel “White Teeth”: conceptual blending models

Abstract

The article discusses the key concepts: history, multiculturalism, hybridity, associated with the postcolonial novel by Zadie Smith “White Teeth”, using conceptual blending methodology. The novel shows the characters from multicultural London milieu facing the challenges of the Western culture and haunted by the colonial past of their home countries. Their identities are shaped by contradictive, sometimes mutually exclusive discourses. The interpretation of history by the characters, immigrants to the UK from the former British colonies, is influenced by their individual worldview and a bond with their home country. Apparently, the policy of multiculturalism in the novel is shown as wholeheartedly supported by some, and opposed by others. Meanwhile, the process of identity search, typical for the second and third generation of immigrants, implies assimilation, resulting in hybridity, or segregation through adoption of some radical political views and socially dangerous models of behaviour. Some of the most salient examples of author’s creativity are subject to detailed analysis in terms of conceptual blending methodology. A basic blend includes a generic space, two input spaces and an emergent space, though the interpretation of author’s stylistic devices involves modelling manifold conceptual blending networks: single-scope, multiple-scope and mirror networks. They are meant to explain the dynamics of sense-making procedures in the most conspicuous cases of author’s creativity. The processes of text interpretation are explained through compression of vital relations within the conceptual blending networks and their topology. The potential for explaining counterfactuals, compounds and complex sophisticated patterns of meaning alongside with the cases of cross-domain mapping may be regarded as one of the benefits of using conceptual blending methodology. Therefore, the combination of conceptual analysis with stylistic analysis seems to be a key to understanding complex semantics of Zadie Smith’s novel.