Globalization of Local Lives: Performing Self-Authenticity as Personal, Local and Social Process in Zadie Smith’s NW

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Candidate of English Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran

3 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University

10.34785/J014.2021.779

Abstract

The present research aims at investigating the social and local relevance of the process of self-authenticity in Zadie Smith’s NW. The novel imagines a complex network of relationships ranging from individual association with occupation to friendships and families, and to participation in local and public oriented interactions, all bring individuals to experience  multiplicity of identifications with others in yet more complex ways.With regard to density and complexity of overlapping social relations this essay  indicates how self-authenticity is a social process determined by confirmation with and from other’s as well as one’s own experiment as means and results of social interactions while, also, acting as a local process operating in practice and in relation to local relevance.The study interrogates to what extent locality acts as a firm framework of reference in construction and maintenance of self-authenticity and identity formation in the current context of increasing global dynamics. It follows the concept of critical cosmopolitanism that assumes individual’s capacity for self-reflexivity as integral to formation of self-authenticity  and necessitates the emergence of a cosmopolitan consciousness that views self-authenticity as dependent on situationally-relevant conditions of time and place rather than on pre-give social patterns viewed as  absolute entities of specific authority and autonomy.

Keywords

References

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Critical Literary Studies
Volume 3, Issue 1 - Serial Number 5
March 2021
Pages 141-156

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History

  • Receive Date: 02 September 2020
  • Revise Date: 14 December 2020
  • Accept Date: 18 January 2021

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