(2016) arrived surrounded by the halo of music, dance, and stardom, and it delivered a new form of narrating some of Zadie Smith’s most pressing concerns. The title of the novel refers to the eponymous musical (Stevens 1936) and, as Jeffrey Eugenides (2016) points out, it is also a hint to Smith’s preoccupation with time, which she had also explored in her previous novel,

(2012). Equally present are the topics of female friendship, the relationship with one’s past, and the pervasiveness and insidiousness of colonialism. Even though the novel covers familiar ground,

came with a twist: it was the first time Smith wrote in the first person. In the interviews following the publication of the novel, she expressed some reservations about writing in the first…

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Citation: Perez Zapata, Beatriz. "Swing Time". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 April 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35797, accessed 21 November 2024.]