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From Alienation To Identification

Author: HouJiaYi
Tutor: DongHongChuan
School: Sichuan International Studies University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: alienation identification postcolonial V. S. Naipaul cultural identity transformation
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Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2010
Downloads: 160
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Abstract

From the perspective of postcolonial identity, this thesis attempts to study the process of V. S. Naipaul’s cultural identity transformation, changing from seeking for a single cultural identity, the loss of identity to the final reconstruction of his cultural identity. From the worship and seeking for the single English identity to the final arrival at hybridity identity, Naipaul experiences a great revolution in his cultural identity, through which he re-examined his complicated cultural identity elements: Englishness, Indian philosophy and Trinidadian colonial culture. The re-examination makes Naipaul undergo a painful process from rejecting the hybridity identity to accepting it.With the development of postcolonial theory and practice, studies on V. S. Naipaul have already turned from the text and cultural issues to the researches on the postcolonial identification in his works. Exile, homelessness and marginality are generally considered as Naipaul’s outstanding features, which would lead to misinterpreting V. S. Naipaul that he is located in cultural vacuum. Actually as one of the representatives of the postcolonial subjects, V. S. Naipaul can not avoid the fate of accepting the hybrid identity in the world marked with cultural hybridity. As the rising power that trying to break the western cultural hegemony, Naipaul himself is also undergoing the problem of identity crisis.Structurally, this thesis consists of three body parts in addition to the Introduction and Conclusion. The part of Introduction begins with a brief introduction to the author and his works. Then there will be the general summary of the previous researches and cultural identity and finally the structure of the thesis is introduced.Chapter one makes an analysis of Naipaul’s worship and seeking after English identity. It firstly attempts to analyze Naipaul’s alienation of Indian and Trinidadian cultures and its reasons. Then the author attempts to analyze the reasons for Naipaul’s alienation of the mother cultures from the influence of the cultural conflicts between the East and the West. In the third part, the author aims to analyze Naipaul’s worship and seeking for the English identity and its reasons.Chapter two makes an analysis of Naipaul’s loss of cultural identity. In the postcolonial world,identity becomes acentric, changeable and flexible and the fusion of different cultures leads to the problem of cultural hybridity. Then the author attempts to further analyze Naipaul’s cultural predicament and his cultural identity crisis. The last part mainly analyzes Naipaul’s loss at location of his cultural identity. The fact Naipaul’s long time turning his back on his mother cultures makes him lose his Indian and Trinidadian identities. His claim of himself the‘world citizen’means his denying of the English identity. Naipaul loses his identity in the hybridity cultures and can not find his belongings, both spiritually and culturally.Chapter three largely explores Naipaul’s final cultural identity reconstruction, which consists of two important parts. The first part analyses V. S. Naipaul’s settlement with English culture. After years of marginal experience, V. S. Naipaul’s worshiping of English culture and identity ends up with disillusionment. The second part mainly analyses V.S. Naipaul’s reconcilement and reexamination with his mother culture in the process of culture identity’s reconstruction by returning to Trinidadian and Indian culture that he has long been misunderstanding and turned his back on. After his journeys to Trinidad and India, V. S. Naipaul realizes that colonial culture and Indian religion and philosophy have already penetrated into his identity and become part of him.The conclusion part reviews the embarrassing position faced by the postcolonial cultural subjects, such as V. S. Naipaul. After forty years of ups and downs, V. S. Naipaul finally arrives at a third place by accepting his hybridity identity. In the last part of conclusion, the author reemphasizes the practical meaning of studying the transformation of Naipaul’s cultural identity.

From Alienation To Identification

Abstract

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