Zadie Smith

Philip Tew

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780230516762
• eBook ISBN: 9781350309128
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Modern Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

An introduction to the work of Zadie Smith, placing her fiction in a clear historical and theoretical context, and exploring her work in relation to contemporaneity and postcolonialism. Including a timeline of key dates, this guide offers an accessible reading of Smith's work and an overview of its critical reception.

PART I

Introduction

TIMELINE

1960	Harold Macmillan ‘Winds of Change’ speech, Cape Town, South Africa John F. Kennedy elected as US President Aged six, Kazuo Ishiguro arrives in Britain
1961	Adolf Eichmann on trial in Israel for role in Holocaust Bay of Pigs: attempted invasion of Cuba Berlin Wall constructed Yuri Gagarin first person in Space Silicon chip patented Private Eye magazine begins publication Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Jonathan Coe born
1962	Cuban Missile Crisis Marilyn Monroe dies Independence for Uganda; followed this decade by Kenya (1963), Northern Rhodesia (1964), Southern Rhodesia (1965), Barbados (1966)
1963	John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas Martin Luther King Jr delivers ‘I Have a Dream’ speech Profumo Affair
1964	Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment Commercial pirate radio challenges BBC monopoly
1965	State funeral of Winston Churchill US sends troops to Vietnam A. L. Kennedy born in Dundee, Scotland
1966	Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sentenced to life imprisonment for Moors Murders England beats West Germany 4–2 at Wembley to win Football World Cup Star Trek series debut on NBC television Jean Rhys, The Wide Sargasso Sea
1967	Six-Day War in the Middle East World’s first heart transplant Abortion Act legalizes termination of pregnancy in the UK Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released by The Beatles Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman
1968	Anti-Vietnam War protestors attempt to storm American Embassy in Grosvenor Square Martin Luther King Jr assassinated Robert F. Kennedy assassinated May: student protests and riots in France (les événements) Lord Chamberlain’s role as censor of plays in the UK is abolished Lindsay Anderson, If …
1969	Civil rights march in Northern Ireland attacked by Protestants Apollo 11 lands on the Moon with Neil Armstrong’s famous first steps Rock concert at Woodstock Yvonne McLean, Zadie Smith’s mother, arrives in London aged 15 from Jamaica Yasser Arafat becomes leader of PLO Booker Prize first awarded; winner P. H. Newby, Something to Answer for Open University founded in the UK John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
1970	Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacks five planes Students activists and bystanders shot in anti-Vietnam War protest at Kent State University, Ohio, four killed, nine wounded UK voting age reduced from 21 to 18 years
1971	Decimal currency introduced in the UK Internment without trial of terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland begins India and Pakistan in conflict after Bangladesh declares independence
1972	Miners’ strike Bloody Sunday in Londonderry, 14 protestors killed outright or fatally wounded by British troops Aldershot barracks bomb initiates IRA campaign with seven dead Britain enters Common Market Massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics Watergate scandal Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange Samuel Beckett, Not I
1973	US troops leave Vietnam Arab–Israeli 15-day Yom Kippur War PM Edward Heath introduces 3-day working week Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers
1974	Miners’ strike IRA bombings in Guildford (5 dead) and Birmingham (21 dead)
1975	Microsoft founded Sex Discrimination Act Zadie Smith born in Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead on 27 October Malcolm Bradbury, The History Man
1976	Weak economy forces UK government loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Ian McEwan, First Love, Last Rites
1977	Star Wars released UK unemployment tops 1,600,000 Nintendo begins to sell computer games Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK tour
1978	Soviet troops occupy Afghanistan First test-tube baby born in Oldham, England
1979	Iranian Revolution establishes Islamic theocracy Margaret Thatcher becomes PM after Conservative election victory USSR invades Afghanistan Lord Mountbatten assassinated by the IRA
1980	Iran–Iraq War starts Iranian Embassy siege in London CND rally at Greenham Common airbase, England IRA hunger strike at Belfast Maze Prison over political status for prisoners Julian Barnes, Metroland
1981	18 January, New Cross house fire, 14 young black people killed Prince Charles and Lady Diana marry in St Paul’s Cathedral with 750 million worldwide television audience British Nationality Bill passed Widespread urban riots in the UK including in Brixton, Holloway, Toxteth, Handsworth, Moss Side AIDS identified First IBM personal computer Alasdair Gray, Lanark Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, which wins Booker Prize for Fiction
1982	Mark Thatcher, PM’s son, disappears for 3 days in Sahara during the Paris–Dakar rally Falklands War with Argentina, costing the UK over £1.6 billion Body of Roberto Calvi, chairman of Vatican-connected Banco Ambrosiano, found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge, London
1983	Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, arrested in Bolivia Beirut: US Embassy and barracks bombing, killing hundreds of members of multinational peacekeeping force, mostly US marines US troops invade Grenada Microsoft Word first released Salman Rushdie, Shame, which wins Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (France)
1984	Miners’ strike begins 18th June, unprovoked attacks on miners by police at Orgreave; miners’ retaliation shown first on evening news to imply provocation by strikers HIV identified as cause of AIDS IRA bomb at Conservative Party Conference in Brighton kills four British Telecom privatization shares sale Thirty-eight deaths during clashes at Liverpool vs Juventus football match at Heysel Stadium, Brussels Martin Amis, Money: A Suicide Note Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot James Kelman, Busconductor Hines Graham Swift, Waterland
1985	Famine in Ethiopia and Live Aid concert Damage to ozone layer discovered Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet Premier and introduces glasnost (openness with the West) and perestroika (economic restructuring) PC Blakelock murdered during riots on Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, London My Beautiful Laundrette film released (dir. Stephen Frears, screenplay Hanif Kureishi) Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Miners’ strike ends in defeat for strikers
1986	Abolition of Greater London Council and other metropolitan county councils in England Violence between police and protestors at Wapping, East London, after Rupert Murdoch sacks 5000 print workers Challenger shuttle explodes Chernobyl nuclear accident The US bombs Libya Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
1987	Capsizing of RORO ferry, Herald of Free Enterprise, off Zeebrugge kills 193 people London Stock Exchange and market collapse on ‘Black Monday’ Remembrance Sunday: 11 killed by Provisional IRA bomb in Enniskillen Ian McEwan, The Child in Time, which wins Whitbread Novel Award Jeanette Winterson, The Passion 16 October, hurricane hits the UK, largest storm for 300 years; winds of 94 km/hr in London, exceeding 100 km/hr on south coast
1988	The US shoots down Iranian passenger flight Pan Am flight 103 bombed over Lockerbie, 270 people killed Soviet troop withdrawals from Afghanistan begin Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
1989	Fatwa issued against Rushdie by Iranian leadership (Ayatollah Khomeini) calling on all Muslims to attempt to kill author for claimed blasphemy Fall of Berlin Wall Exxon Valdez oil disaster Student protestors massacred in Tiananmen Square, Bejing Hillsborough Stadium disaster in which 96 football fans die Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, which wins Booker Prize for Fiction Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry Sadie Smith adopts the name Zadie
1990	London poll tax riots Fall of Thatcher; John Major becomes Conservative PM Nelson Mandela freed from jail Jeanette Winterson adapts Oranges for BBC television film A. S. Byatt, Possession Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia, which wins Whitbread First Novel Prize A. L. Kennedy, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains
1991	Soviet Union collapses First Iraq War with 12-day Operation Desert Storm Apartheid ended in South Africa PM Major negotiates opt-out for Britain from European Monetary Union and rejects Social Chapter of Maastricht Treaty Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) helps create the World Wide Web Hanif Kureishi: screenplays for Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and London Kills Me Pat Barker, Regeneration
1992	‘Black Wednesday’ stock market crisis when the UK forced to exit European Exchange Rate Mechanism Adam Thorpe, Ulverton
1993	14 February, black teenager Stephen Lawrence murdered in Well Hall Road, London With Downing Street Declaration, PM John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds commit Britain and Ireland to joint Northern Ireland resolution Film of Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
1994	Tony Blair elected leader of Labour Party following death of John Smith Channel Tunnel opens Nelson Mandela elected President of South Africa Provisional IRA and loyalist paramilitary cease-fire Homosexual age of consent for men in the UK lowered to 18 Mike Newell (dir.), Four Weddings and a Funeral Jonathan Coe, What a Carve Up! James Kelman, How late it was, how late, which wins Booker Prize for Fiction Irvine Welsh, The Acid House
1995	Oklahoma City bombing Srebrenica massacre during Bosnian War Pat Barker, The Ghost Road Nicholas Hytner (dir.), The Madness of King George Hanif Kureishi, The Black Album
1996	Cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (Mad Cow Disease) in the UK Divorce of Charles and Diana Breaching cease-fire, Provisional IRA bombs London’s Canary Wharf and Central Manchester Film of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle), starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle Graham Swift, Last Orders, which wins Booker Prize Zadie Smith enters King’s College, Cambridge, to read English
1997	Tony Blair becomes Labour PM after landslide victory Princess Diana dies in Paris car crash Hong Kong returned to China by the UK Jim Crace, Quarantine Jonathan Coe, The House of Sleep, which wins Prix Médicis Etranger (France) Ian McEwan, Enduring Love Iain Sinclair and Marc Atkins, Lights Out for the Territory Aged 21 Zadie Smith graduates from Cambridge; allegedly first novel sold to Hamish Hamilton on the basis of 80 pages for £250,000 advance
1998	Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Assembly established Twenty-eight people killed by splinter group Real IRA bombing in Omagh Sonny Bono Act extends copyright to lifetime plus 70 years BFI/Channel 4 film Stella Does Tricks, released (screenplay A. L. Kennedy) Julian Barnes, England, England
1999	Euro currency adopted in mainland Europe Macpherson Inquiry into Stephen Lawrence murder accuses London’s Metropolitan Police of institutional racism NATO bombs Serbia over Kosovo crisis Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament both open Thirty-one passengers killed in Ladbroke Grove train disaster
2000	Zadie Smith appointed writer in residence at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London Anti-globalization protest and riots in London Hauliers and farmers blockade oil refineries in fuel price protest in the UK Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans Will Self, How the Dead Live Zadie Smith, White Teeth, which wins Whitbread First Novel Award, Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize, Betty Trask Award and James Tait Black Memorial Prize
2001	Zadie Smith edits May Anthology Labour Party under Blair re-elected to gov...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• General Editors’ Preface
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on Texts Cited
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Major Works
• Part III: Criticism and Contexts
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index