THE SEARCH FOR «SELF» IN MODERN BRITISH POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE (BASED ON NOVELS BY H. KUREISHI AND Z. SMITH)

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of identity crisis in the novels written by modern postcolonial writers: “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith and “Buddha of Suburbia” by Hanif Kureishi. The goal is to highlight the main aspects of manifestations of the same crisis in novels’ characters – the ones who experience the most evident and vivid instances of the problem. The introduction provides a brief coverage of the phenomenon of contemporary British postcolonial literature, its representatives and the most important problems they touch upon in their creative works. Beside the “Search for Self” issue, the article also provides insight into literary techniques employed by the authors to describe how characters overcome the identity crisis. Based on the performed analysis, we may conclude that the crisis has various manifestations, ranging from the inability to properly fit in because of immigrant background to the inner ambiguity as a result of mixed parenthood.