| Zadie Smith,a second-generation immigrant writer born in London,is a representative of the new generation of immigrant writers in contemporary British literature.Her mixed-race family background prompts Smith to pay attention to immigrant groups in London,and issues such as immigration,race and women are all presented in her works.The "trilogy of London"("White Teeth","Northwest" and "Swing Time"),the research object of this paper,was created by Smith with his familiar background of Hampstead in northwest London.Smith wrote a detailed account of the life experience of immigrants growing up in northwest London,presenting the dangerous and diverse London society.It is of unique practical significance to sketch the image of London and reflect on the plight of immigrants in different periods since the Second World War.The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique image of London that Smith presents to readers in her London trilogy: a heterogeneous space full of discipline,edge and possibility.The article is divided into five parts: The introduction part introduces the current situation of Smith’s creation,sorts out the research status of Smith’s works at home and abroad,and also explains the research background,research content and significance of this paper.The first part,based on White Teeth and Swing Time,analyzes how the empire disciplined and assimilated former colonial immigrants and developing countries through cultural and religious education,and transmitted British symbols to the colonies from two aspects of the inner city of London and the global background.For its residents,London is an imperial ideological field providing cultural order;for African countries,it is a symbol of Western power.The second part explores the marginal experience of immigrants from the aspects of urban space and social relations,focusing on the crisis in London since the new century,as well as the living difficulties and spiritual fission of the marginalized immigrants.London’s urban space contains unequal power relations and serious social isolation.At the spatial level,immigrants endure the small dilapidated and chaotic living space,they are also restricted by living space,and it is difficult to get rid of their identity labels imposed by immigrant settlements.In terms of social relations,it is difficult for different types of immigrants to escape the fate of being marginalized in London.These marginalization experiences make immigrants fall into spiritual crisis.The third part focuses on exploring the openness and possibilities of London in addition to the significance of the "imperial center".In White Teeth,Smith not only wrote about the assimilation and marginal role of London,but also analyzed the special places with resistance and inclusiveness,so as to explore the possibility of London transcending differences and moving toward integration in the new century at the end of the20 th century when racial problems were not acute.In Northwest and Swing Time,although Smith’s imagination failed to come true,London was still in crisis as it entered the new century,but Smith also showed the open side of London through the subversion of the absolute identity of the host and the traveler and the writing of open space.The conclusion summarizes the uniqueness of London’s image in Smith’s works and the complexity of city image in diaspora writers’ works: London in Smith’s works is not only an imperial ideological field disciplined by imperial values,but also a diverse,fluid and open cultural space with heterogeneity. |
