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ABSTRACT
Critics assert that characterization in Zadie Smith's On Beauty is fatally shallow and stereotypical. Instead, it is an authorial coup by Smith. This claim is established through three underlying arguments: that 1) part of Zadie Smith's typecasting in On Beauty extends to the naming of Howard and Kiki Belsey's children, 2) this function of naming by Howard and Kiki is a pre-emptive racial identification, an optative affirmative action, and a practice of nominative determinism that depends upon an understanding of language as representational, and 3) Kiki's and Howard's motivations in naming establish the precedent of a happy, united, early Belsey marriage against which can be measured Howard's current behaviour and the flatness of Kiki, Jerome, Zora, and Levi as a consequence of his rigid, negative professional and personal emptiness. Still, naming denotes unique identity and attention. Analysis of the ending scene of naming shows hope for Howard and his family.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Smith, On Beauty, 99.
2 Ibid., 327.
3 “Top Names”, n.p.
4 Smith, On Beauty, 293 and others.
5 Ibid., 18.
6 Ibid., 292 and others.
7 Ibid., 7.
8 Ibid., 17.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid., 265.
13 Ibid.
14 See Claire's description of Kiki, 227.
15 Smith, Changing, 13.
16 Smith, On Beauty, 197–8.
17 Ibid., 174.
18 Ibid., 94, 172.
19 Ibid., 102.
20 Ibid., 19.
21 Ibid., 174.
22 For all biographical info on Hurston, see Patterson.
23 Smith, On Beauty, 19.
24 Ibid., 122.
25 Ibid., 365, 367. (Zadie Smith uses an extravagance of italics; these and all italics in quotes are original.)
26 Ibid., 367.
27 “Civil Rights 101”, n.p.
28 Smith, On Beauty, 303.
29 Ibid., 145.
30 Ibid., 146.
31 Ibid., 145, 158.
32 Ibid., 129, 209, and others.
33 Ibid., 155.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid., 174.
36 Ibid., 120.
37 William Kingdon Clifford's “Principle” from “The Ethics of Belief” posits that sufficient evidence is always a prereq for belief.
38 Bourbon, 28.
39 Smith, On Beauty, 225.
40 Murdoch, 16.
41 Smith, On Beauty, 209.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid., 17.
44 For all biographical information on Heartwell, see Hodder.
45 Smith, On Beauty, 207.
46 Ibid., 227.
47 Ibid., 18.
48 Ibid., 320.
49 Ibid., 25.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid., 17–18.
52 Ibid., 105.
53 Ibid., 83–5, 206 and others.
54 Ibid., 71.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid., 424.
57 Ibid., 81.
58 Ibid., 171.
59 Ibid., 23.
60 Ibid., 22, 23.
61 Ibid., 22.
62 Ibid., 23.
63 Ibid., 48.
64 Fischer, 117.
65 For all biographical info on Watkins, Jr., see Bradley.
66 Smith, On Beauty, 172.
67 Ibid., 144.
68 Ibid., 284.
69 Ibid., 287.
70 Ibid., 425.
71 Ibid., 219–20.
72 Ibid., 12.
73 Ibid., 63.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid., 81.
76 Ibid., 83.
77 Ibid., 107.
78 Ibid., 85.
79 Ibid., 24.
80 Ibid., 428.
81 Ibid.
82 Ibid.
83 Ibid, 117, 368.
84 Ibid., 429.
85 Ibid., 430.
86 Ibid., 436.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid., 437.
89 Smith, On Beauty, 434, 7. Fischer, 111.
90 Smith, On Beauty, 386.
91 Ibid., 442.
92 Ibid, 443.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid.
95 Ibid., 121.