Public and Private Posture: Zadie Smith (1975)

This chapter will focus on Smith’s posture, and in particular on how her public position and literary work negotiate issues such as identification, celebrity, style and authenticity. First, the paradox of the ‘celebrity authority’ will be examined, followed by a Derrida-inspired analysis of Smith’s second novel, The Autograph Man (2002), as it engages explicitly with fame, stardom and fandom. A reading of some of Smith’s essays, in the third section, will confirm that the construction of Smith’s self-image in and beyond the text has to be understood as an inventive play of authenticity, style, and autobiographical voice. In the conclusion it will be argued that Smith’s orchestration of posture(s) transforms the star into an author with cultural authority.