Zadie Smith’s “On Beauty” and the Problem of Liberalism and Citizenship

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Table of Contents

Zadie Smith’s “On beauty” and the problem of liberalism and citizenship
Radical liberalism vs. Radical Conservatism – is there any deep differences?
Liberalism and conservatism as hypocrisy: literary means of expression
Modernity and postmodernity in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting
References

Zadie Smith’s “On beauty” and the problem of liberalism and citizenship

The problem of liberalism and citizenship is not so well expressed in modern literature due to several reasons. First of all, for the past 40 years the thematic orientation in the literature has changed in direction from the depiction of the real contradictions of social reality (such as in realist and early modernist literature) to the postmodern “collapse of big narrative” and loss of connection between ‘signifier and signified”. The majority of modern writers replace the objective necessity of real life depiction using literary expressive means by the complete destruction of form and disdain for positive literary work content. In this view, Smith’s literary work may be regarded as exclusion due to her resolved and critical stance in relation to social reality. Therefore, this part of essay deals with analysis of liberal and citizenship themes as they presented in the famous novel of talented young British author Zadie Smith (2005). In my analysis I will focus on interrelation between Smith’s stance to abovementioned problems with the dominant theories and approaches in the modern scientific debates on the issues of liberalism and citizenship. Then, I will try to figure out what expressive means are used to artistically depict liberal contradictions in modern western society, more generally, how the author’s theoretical position is realized through the mechanism of literary form.

Radical liberalism vs. Radical Conservatism – is there any deep differences?

The plot of the novel centers around two different families, one – the Belseys and the second – Kippses. Howard Belsey is a 60-year-old professor of history in the elite college of liberal art near Boston city. The atmosphere of its closed academic society with rich students and professors separated by “appropriated space” (in Bourdieu sense) from the poor suburbs and ghettos of the city is intrinsically liberal. The primary emphasis of this elite ‘Sein’ as depicted by Smith is on difference, political correctness, ‘conspicuous consumption’ and glorification of individual vis-à-vis societal.

Howard Belsey himself represents the incarnation of this postmodern liberalism, a professor working on his opus magnum on Rembrandt with the name “Against Rembrandt”. He opposes aesthetic beauty in general placing more emphasis on “difference” in Derrida sense and non-repressive “small narratives”. His ideal is atomized world where each identity is equally valued and respected. Thus, he glorifies particularistic differences among people. His wife Kiki, Afro-American women represents all the virtues of her husband and his children Jerome, aged 20, Zora, aged 19 and Levi – 16 provide examples of this liberal principles in their daily activities which can be characterized as unconstrained consumption of goods that some people, but not Zadie Smith regard as ‘self-realization’.

Smith wonderful idea which represents high social and artistic features of the novel is realized through association of this liberal family with conservative one – the family of Monty Kipp a Caribbean black professor and strict canonic Christian who also specializes on the Rembrandt works. In my view, this correlation and linkage of oppositions on liberal left and conservative right provided Zadie Smith with powerful and substantial material to make the harsh critique and satirical debunking of these two mindsets.

Interestingly, that the difference between Monty Kipps and Howard Belsey seems to be superficial. But still it persists. Kipps seems to be less interested in the aesthetic characteristics of art and considers his work mainly as a source of wealth accumulation and using his knowledge for the professional growth and promotion. He radically opposes liberal sentiments in the issues of gay, lesbian and gender equality, free sexual lifestyles, the legalization of aborts and other liberal stuff. But as his colleague he is not interested in the deeper layer of exploitation, which contrary to Howard are hidden from him since he is wearing ‘conservative spectacles’

His two college children, the entrepreneurial Michael and gorgeous Victory also seem to reflect Protestant virtues represented in the Weber’s “Spirit of Capitalism”.

So, as we see the differences between them are quite superficial and this fact is ironically depicted by Smith, who tries to show her readers that both families regard wealth accumulation as their primary interest notwithstanding their “narrative” differences. But this point of view will be outlined a little bit later. The author as noted above brings these families together and analyzing the interrelation of characters with different backgrounds exposes them to harsh critique. Now, let’s discuss the main ideas outlined by Zadie Smith in her seminal novel connected with the problems of political ideologies.

Smith critique of liberalism and other political ideologies.

Smith is by no means an amateur in the modern debates in American society between liberalism and conservatism. It is exemplified mainly by her deep understanding of the ideological values and principles characteristic of liberal and conservative mindsets.

The first message of political origin that is provided as a critique of postmodern liberalism by Zaddie Smith is liberalism’s emphasis on the “identity building”. For Smith as she brilliantly express it in the novel the more strong emphasis is put on the issues of multiculturalism, gender and race, the less attention is paid to the real social contradictions which represent the deepest layer of society. According to Smith’s point of view identity’s differences celebrated by liberals represent the surface of social being. The author coming from the poor and marginalized London’s suburbs understands that the main contradiction is between rich and poor. Thus, in her novel she constantly points to the fact that the liberal atmosphere of political correctness and “conspicuous consumption” of elitist university campus lies in total opposition with genuine liberal principles. In this point she seems to be close with leftist prospective on this problem represented by such researchers as Wood (1995) and Jameson(1991). In “On beauty” race differences, for instance, are marginalized, they are not merely regarded as important. As Charles Taylor (1989) showed the multiculturalism which places much emphasis on identity and regards discrimination as mainly directed to such issues as gender, race, and sexual orientation precludes the realization of traditional liberal concept of citizenship. According to Taylor (1989) there exist modern trend to ‘various identities’ on the expense of integral human identity which is based on the perception of intrinsic human rights for justice and self-realization. These can be realized only in the case of existence of the integrated concept of citizenship which implies creating equal possibilities for all people notwithstanding their race, nationality, sexual orientation through the mechanism of social protection and guaranteeing genuine participation in the democratic process.

It seems to me that such perspective is shared by Smith which can be seen in her artistic debunking of Howard’s culturalist and identity sentiments. Moreover, it can be easily seen that the problem of race or gender discrimination is outlined by Smith mainly through the prism of social inequality. As a young black, poor woman Zaddie Smith knows well that the discrimination of race and gender results from social discrimination.

Liberalism and conservatism as hypocrisy: literary means of expression

The debunking of liberalism as mindset and ideology is realized through presenting protagonists of the novel as being highly hypocritical. Howard, the proponent of secularism and liberal values sleeps not just with Claire Malcolm but with Kippses’ 18-aged daughter Victoria which has devastating effect on his family (wife and children). Monty, tireless defendant of “beauty” and Christian virtue, as we find out in the end of the novel, also has an affair with one of his students, while at the time his wife was dying of cancer.

By debunking this hypocrisy Smith simultaneously opposes liberalism and conservatism and in this way claims that they are postmodern ideologies which are not deeply inherent in the person’s values and do not represent any viable political alternative for the modern society. Besides this, Smith uses brilliant satirical and metaphorical tools to show the ridiculousness of Howard and Monty and the window dressing of their political values.

What does Smith offer in her turn? She thinks that more attention must be paid to real human personal relations connected with social inequality, citizenship and democratic rights. In her view liberal values are ridiculous if they are not connected with real possibility for self-realization of personality which in their turn can’t be reduced to abstract political rights. Moreover, as the title of the novel suggests, more emphasis must be placed on empathy for every human being who is neglected in modern fetish world where main motors are money and successful carrier.

In my view, Smith novel “On beauty” can be characterized both by deep insight into the problems of modern liberal and conservative ideologies and by professional artistic depiction of the modern’s civilization contradictions.

Modernity and postmodernity in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting

Among modern literature endeavors Welsh’s novel Trainspotting (1984) provides us with example of interesting intersection between modernist and postmodernist currents in the contemporary literature both at the level of literary form and the depiction of real human conditions. In this part of my essay I will try to analyze the main contours of this interrelation and examine how they are embedded in the novel contexts.

The novel is made in the form of short paragraphs written in the first person by different residents of Edinburgh. The main characters of this narration use heroin or have the friends of other people in the group of heroin addicts. They also are engaged in the destructive activities that are depicted as the reflection of their drug addiction on the social level. The events of the novel take place in the Thatcher’s Great Britain and the main expressive means that are used refer mainly to the tradition of black comedy interwoven with sometimes emphatically motivated insight into the characters of protagonists.

The structure of the work shows that the novel is based on modernist and postmodernist currents in contemporary literature. The entire plot is developed in the manner introduced by James Joyce with small chapters devoted to the particular personage. The narration is based on the literary method of “stream of consciousness” first introduced in the Faulkner’s “As I lay dying” (1987). Welsh narrated the thoughts of characters in the sequence that they are produced by their consciousness, thus creating strange symbolic atmosphere peculiar to modernism and postmodernism.

Besides this much of the themes and allusions have modernism and postmodernism as their source. One of them is disintegration, which can be found in the characters of Mark “Rent Boy” , David “Davie” Mitchell who at brink of collapse due to their addiction to heroin. But this addiction is not depicted as some strictly social problem but is artistically realized through the prism of disintegration as it is presented in the postmodernist literature.

The sources of postmodernity can be found in the process of dissolution of the religious explanation and image of the world, changes that had taken place in economic and social structure, a new role of “inhuman” science and life rationalization in society, which undermined existing identities and personal orientations and led to “depersonalization” of human relations. There is no denying the fact that these real conflicts found a specific incarnation in literature that is characterized by its own expressive means and is heavily dependent upon formal parameters. The abovementioned social processes can be described as disintegration on different levels: the ideological disintegration – loss of faith in future, in God etc., various forms of social and personal alienation, and the dissolution of traditional socially predetermined structures – family, friendship, relations between men and women etc.

The disintegration as it happens on these level made many writers revisit the widely spread canon of literary work that dominated world literature for many years. New motif of disintegration become the major feature of the works of such modernist writers as diverse as J. Conrad, T.S. Eliot, J. Joyce, F. Kafka, M. Proust, A. Camus (and other existentialists) etc.

The deep feeling of disintegration the examples of which are given by early modernist literature can be found in abundance in the Welsh novel. His characters are not dumb or mentally ill but are the products of Thatcher’s Great Britain where the personal alienation of youth has led to the growth of criminality and drug addiction. The majority of the characters of the novel can’t simply find their place in British society and this leads them to moral degradation. For instance, that is true for such characters as Simon “Sick Boy” and sociopath Francis “Franco”.

Another characteristic of the Welsh novel that ties it with modernist and postmodernist currents is a great emphasis on symbolism, form and intertextuality.

As I mentioned, modernism deeply transformed the structure of literary work. Modernist writers paid special attention to form which as they thought was the main component of literary work. The symbolism became dominant current in the modernist literature. As T.S. Eliot, one of the most subtle modernists wrote, the “mythic method” was a great advance in literature in comparison to «narrative method” (1923 483). The temporal attitude to history was replaced by concentration on a deeper discursive level, which exists autonomously of time and social space.

The symbolism of the Welsh novel is in my view deeply affected by such writers as Kafka and Proust. These writers represent widespread tendency to overestimate the importance of form which inevitably leads to the loss of the plot integrity and destruction of the form itself (the latter is evident in the works of postmodernists. This formalistic approach led Kafka to the dissemination of the “life absurdity thesis” and Proust – to the infinite regress into subjectivity not tied with the rest of the world, encapsulated and closed within its own meanings and prejudices.

The depressive and pessimistic features peculiar to these writers are deeply entrenched in the Trainspotting’ plot. No hope for positive change is given; in contrary the author is prone to make aesthetic those real social problems depicted in the novel.

Another characteristic of the Welsh’s novel is so-called psychological realism.

For instance, Spud refers to other people inside his soul as ‘cats’ (Begbie for instance is jungle cat, and he refers to himself as house cat), Sick Boy occasionally perform an inner-dialogue between him and Sean Connery. Chapters narrated by Renton seem to coquet with Derrida’s deconstruction theory – in these situations this protagonist tries to completely deconstruct or even destruct his consciousness in order to find the “ontological wound” of his being that can be cured. Those chapters that are written from the third-person stance seem nothing to do with the previous author’s attitude to his characters. He simply makes his characters speak of themselves from the third-person stance. That kind of expressive tools used by Welsh in his novel is very peculiar to postmodernist current in the contemporary literature.

Besides this, Welsh develops the novel’s fibula in the non-linear way. New characters are introduced without background information. The narration is sometimes not logically correlated, which can’t be written off to mere drawbacks of literary work’s structure, but on the contrary should be regarded as something deeply inherent to it.

To sum it up, the modernist and postmodernist motives and themes can be found both at the level of literary form reproduction and at the level of plot. The abundance of formalistic tools that the author is using ties him with modernist tradition. Deconstruction and intertexual symbolism places the novel within the framework of postmodernist tradition. This leads me to the conclusion that the Welsh novel “Trainspotting” represents interesting intersection of modernist and postmodernist currents.

References

Eliot, T. S.1923, Ulysses, Order and Myth, The Dial LXXV, 483.
Faulkner, W. 1987, As I Lay Dying, The Corrected Text. Vintage Books, New York.
Jameson, F.1991, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Durham NC, USA, Duke University Press.
Smith, Z. 2005, On Beauty, Penguin Press, New York.
Taylor, C. 1989, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Wood E. M. 1995, Civil Society and the Politics of Identity. In Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Welsh, I. 1994, Trainspotting, London, Vintage books.

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