Transnationality in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

Transnationality is a recent phenomenon, largely misunderstood as globalization, which is in turn often limited to its merely economic sense. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000) explores transnational complexities beyond these limitations, re-inventing personalized meanings of ethnically and racially diverse transnationals in cosmopolitan suburban London. In her novel, Smith examines levels and shapes of cultural syncretism and focuses on the fluidity of transnational identity. Through bi-cultural identities, Smith examines the dynamics and modalities of cultural flows that propose to erase differences. Smith seems to agree with Arjun Appadurai that transnational culture is shaped by bi-directional cultural flows and that such an exchange transgresses regional and national boundaries. Optimistic yet ironic, Smith documents the development of a new cosmopolitan era and in consequence shows how personal aspirations blur Kwame Anthony Appiah’s vision that warring factions will finally put aside their supposed differences and recognize fundamental human values that transgress supposed differences.