Maryam Shokouhi
Abstract
Zadie Smith, as a writer intimately associated with London, attacks the false concept of purity and unity in multicultural societies. In The Autograph Man (2002), she depicts the obsessions of Alex Li-Tandem who is half-Jewish and half-Chinese living in the suburban heartland of Jewish London, Mountjoy. ...
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Zadie Smith, as a writer intimately associated with London, attacks the false concept of purity and unity in multicultural societies. In The Autograph Man (2002), she depicts the obsessions of Alex Li-Tandem who is half-Jewish and half-Chinese living in the suburban heartland of Jewish London, Mountjoy. Alex is not a social person at the opening of the novel, and cannot relate to his Jewish background or people surrounding him. So, he starts collecting autographs to compensate for the lack he faces in life. A one- to-one relationship between the subject’s path from "marginalization" to "separation" and, "integration", reclaiming his identity and the role of the Other could be pursued in the novel. In other words, family, place of residence, friends, and religion are significant in the acculturation process that Alex goes through from childhood to adulthood. Con- trary to Smith’s previous works, the novel emphasizes less on the multicultural issues centered on the land and more on religious identity.