The Representation of Identity and Alienation in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

Abstract

This study examines the representation of identity and alienation in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth within the context of postcolonial multicultural Britain. The research investigates how the novel constructs identity as a dynamic and negotiated process shaped by migration, diaspora, generational conflict, and the lingering effects of imperial history. While existing scholarship has emphasized hybridity and multicultural integration, this study foregrounds alienation as a central and generative force in the formation of hybrid subjectivity.
Adopting a qualitative and interpretative research design, the study relies on close textual analysis supported by postcolonial theoretical frameworks developed by Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, and Edward Said. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity and the “Third Space” informs the analysis of liminal identity positions, Hall’s model of identity as a continuous process of becoming guides the interpretation of diasporic subjectivity, and Said’s critique of imperial discourse provides historical and ideological context. Through thematic analysis and postcolonial discourse analysis, the research explores how characters such as Samad Iqbal, Irie Jones, and the Iqbal twins negotiate belonging within a multicultural urban environment.
The findings demonstrate that identity in the novel is neither fixed nor essential but constructed through cultural negotiation and historical memory. Alienation emerges not only as psychological fragmentation but also as a structural condition of inhabiting in-between cultural spaces. For first-generation immigrants, alienation manifests as displacement and nostalgia, whereas second-generation characters experience ambivalence and internal division. Importantly, the study argues that alienation functions as a transformative dimension of identity formation, enabling characters to reconstruct belonging beyond rigid cultural binaries.
By integrating identity and alienation within a unified analytical framework, this research contributes to postcolonial literary studies and offers a nuanced understanding of multicultural experience in contemporary British fiction. The study concludes that White Teeth redefines belonging as an ongoing negotiation shaped by history, migration, and cultural hybridity, thereby affirming its enduring relevance within postcolonial discourse.