V.S. Naipaul
Subtitle: a materialist reading
By: Selwyn R. Cudjoe.
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 1988
Place of publication: Amherst
Language: eng
Number of pages: 287
ISBN-13: 9780870236204
Subjects: Naipaul, V. S. 1932-  -- Criticism and interpretation.; Naipaul, V. S. 1932-  -- Political and social views.; Literature and society -- West Indies -- History -- 20th century.; West Indians -- Intellectual life.; Decolonization in literature.; Colonies in literature.
Description: This major reassessment of novelist V.S. Naipaul's work argues that although Naipaul regards himself as "rootless ... without a past, without ancestors," his writing is in fact rooted in the literary and historical traditions of the Caribbean and can best be understood in the context of the larger field of postcolonial discourse. Covering in chronological order all of Naipaul's books, Selwyn R. Cudjoe charts the author's development from a position in which the tension between his Eastern and Western visions of the world created classics of world literature (A House for Mr. Biswas, The Mimic Men) to his progressive identification with "the dominant imperialist ideology and racist preoccupations of the age" (In a Free State, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, Among the Believers). Cudjoe's analysis is grounded in contemporary literary theory, an understanding of Hinduism, and a thorough knowledge of West Indian literature and history. - Back cover.
Notes: Bibliography: p. [259]-278.
Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Tradition, Miguel Street, and other stories : the first period of Naipaul's development; title: The colonial society : opening up the social space; title: A prose-tragedy : Mr. Biswas and the original myths; title: The conflict of world views : the second period of Naipaul's development; title: At the "rim of the world" : the postcolonial society; title: Ideology, culture, and national identity; title: The postcolonial society and the individual subject : the third period of Naipaul's development; title: Doom and despair : the eternal condition of colonial peoples; title: Language, repression, identity : a materialist recuperation; title: Conclusion