Representing Third Spaces, Fluid Identities and Contested Spaces in Contemporary British Literature

Abstract

Andrea Levy�s Small Island, Monica Ali�s Brick Lane and Zadie Smith�s White Teeth are contemporary novels by recognised women writers in the British literary panorama who, even though born in England, are linked to ethnic groups from South Asia and the Caribbean. Accordingly, these novels have been studied in relation to postcolonial writing and tradition. Yet, I shall argue that they address issues that go beyond the logic of post-colonialism, question categories such as insiders and outsiders and offer a contesting view of Britain. I shall put forward that these novels depict the plurality of ways in which ethnically diverse people live, narrate and make sense of their multicultural experiences. By so doing, they problematise a homogenous view of British identity, they celebrate the �third space� and they provide a dynamic representation of contemporary British society. In such a setting, identities are presented as fluid and space(s) as continuously negotiated.

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