Multiculturalism, Biotechnology, and Biopolitics in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

Abstract

This article traces the critical reception of Zadie Smith’s debut novel White Teeth (2000) to argue that both neoliberal and neoconservative interpretations of her work (and personal celebrity) have distorted the novel’s critique of contemporary biopolitics as a project of debilitating inclusion and racial eugenics. Rather than treating White Teeth as a “hysterical” or “naive” celebration of multiculturalism, this essay, focused on the ending of the novel, instead argues that White Teeth not only anticipates criticisms of multiculturalism as an inadequate model of belonging but also, more importantly, demonstrates a biopolitical understanding of race as a category that manages the distribution of life chances in postcolonial Britain. Drawing on work by Jasbir Puar, Achille Mbembe, and Luce Irigaray, this reframing of White Teeth opens new connections between her early work and her more recent “pessimistic” novels, such as Swing Time.