Greeshma Peethambaran

Zadie Smith's the Autograph Man Greeshma Peethambaran

Pegged on the concept of "otherness", Bakhtin's principle of dialogue highlights the differential relation between a center and all that is not the center. Bakhtinian thought centers on the dialogue between the "self" and the "other". Bakhtin argues that any notion acquires meaning only in dialogue with another notion. However, the "self" in Bakhtin's notion is not a self-sufficient construct by itself. The "self" gains meaning/existence only in its relation with the "other". "Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man: A Dialogic Perspective" attempts to probe into the novel under study as a dialogic narrative viewing it as a dialogue between the "self" and the "other", which constitutes the Jewish and the Goyish voices in the novel. Besides, the novel also proves itself as a dialogue between the Author, Hero and the Reader.