Abstract
From the outset of her career, Zadie Smith has been framed as a literary superstar. Critics and literary journalists seem obsessed with—and suspecting of—her commercial success and stylish image. By making use of Jerôme Meizoz’s insights into authorial postures, this chapter focuses on Smith’s posture as a celebrity author and seeks to analyze how her public position and literary work negotiate issues such as identification, celebrity, style and authenticity. Special attention is paid to Smith’s second novel, The Autograph Man (2002), as it deals explicitly with fame, stardom and fandom. Smith’s essays, too, illustrate the author’s inventive play intertwining authenticity, style and an autobiographical voice, as she seeks to reconcile her star status with her cultural authority as an author.
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Heynders, O. (2016). Public and Private Posture: Zadie Smith (1975). In: Franssen, G., Honings, R. (eds) Celebrity Authorship and Afterlives in English and American Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55868-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55868-8_9
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