DOI: https://doi.org/10.59321/BAUETJ.V4I2.29
AUTHOR(S)
Ahmed Yousuf Ayatulla1*, Md. Ataul Karim1
ABSTRACT
Zadie Smith’s debut novel White Teeth (2000) primarily depicts the lives and struggles of three families that span over two generations. They are ethnically, culturally and socially different from each other though they share the same spatio-temporal setting of multicultural London. While doing so, it critically explores the predicaments of the characters’ attempt to make sense of their identities, cultures, histories, lineages and perceptions of the world around them. So, this paper aims to address the characters’ struggles and argues that such problems stem from their psychological scars, trauma, and unresolved conflicts that are deeply rooted in their personal experiences. Furthermore, this paper examines how personal trauma coupled with the trauma of war, cultural shocks, displacement and collective histories are manifested in broader social context and result in fragmentation/reconfiguration of the self. In order to do so, this paper extensively draws attention to the literary theory of trauma studies. Also, the convergence of other theories in the later phase of the development of trauma theory is also taken into account while conducting this research. Moreover, this research is conducted to add new insigh ts to the interpretation and understanding of the text as no such attempt is made so far.