An Orchestration of National Cultural Memories in the Grand Union of Britons at the Lazy River of Spain

Abstract

Zadie Smith is a British author, novelist, and short-story writer well known for her portrayal of the interplay of culture, race, and identity in her works. ‘The Lazy River’ is one of the collections of short stories in the book The Grand Union written against the background of Britain leaving the European Union after the Brexit deal. Few stories in this collection signify the British culture and its embodying acts and also, symbolizes Britishers’ association with European countries in diverse forms and cultural acts. Memory studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and literature serves as the medium of memory. Literary fiction is a parallel to the memory system and a placeholder of fictional memories produced as a result of the process of memory creation and it is also perceived as the symbol of culture. The ‘Lazy River’ exemplifies the process of memory creation and the establishment of collective identity. This paper aims to examine the process of memory creation and exploits the act of memory creation as an act of cultural significance for the establishment of identity as a multifarious factor determined by the intersection of socio, political, physical, and psycho effects.