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Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======

Introductory Discussions on The Novel, “A Bend in the River”

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932–2018), publicly known as V. S. Naipaul, was a British-Trinidadian writer of Indian descent. He was best known for writing pessimistic novels and travel accounts of the developing world. Naipaul was born and brought up on the island of Trinidad, located in the Caribbean Sea off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. His grandparents started to live in Trinidad in the nineteenth century as contractual servants. He secured free passage from India in exchange for a set period of labour on one of the island’s plantations. In 1950, Naipaul received a scholarship to study in England, and he chose to attend Oxford University. Following the completion of his studies there, he settled in London. He immediately began a long and productive writing career that spanned five decades and saw the publication of fourteen novels and sixteen works of nonfiction. Naipaul received numberless high honours for his work, including the prestigious Booker Prize for his 1971 novel and a knighthood in 1989. In 2001, the Swedish Academy awarded Naipaul the Nobel Prize in Literature, praising the “vigilant style” of his prose and his commitment to unveiling the hidden “history of the anquished.”

 In A Bend in the River (1979), Naipaul’s exploration of alienation and dislocation takes on special complexity as the ethnically Indian protagonist must navigate two separate but connected forms of colonization: that of the British Empire, which dominated East throughout his childhood, and that of an emerging African regime, which sees everything of foreign origin as a threat to African independence.  A Bend in the River expresses a fundamentally pessimistic view of the newly independent Africa, a view that Naipaul very likely based on developments he saw taking place in the continent’s central region. Naipaul set his novel in a central African nation. Though ======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- DSE2T : World Literatures, Topic- V.S.Naipaul’s ‘Bend in the River’ ======

Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======

unnamed in the novel, the country bears a strong resemblance to Zaïre---now it is known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1967, Zaïre came under the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, a ruler who enjoyed a significant cult of personality despite his totalitarian political ideology.

Particularly in the early years of his reigning , Mobutu began an official policy of authenticité, French for “authenticity.” Mobutu designed this policy to purge Zaïre of all foreign cultural influences, especially those lingering from the traumatic period of Belgian colonialism. Like Mobutu, the unnamed President in Naipaul’s novel encourages Africans to “radicalize” and orders the nationalization of all foreign-owned businesses. As a foreigner, the protagonist of the novel suddenly finds himself powerless and disenfranchised, and he must hurry to flee the country as it descends into barbarism and violence. Such is the disturbing vision Naipaul offered of independent Africa’s future in his 1979 novel.

======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- DSE2T : World Literatures, Topic- V.S.Naipaul’s ‘Bend in the River’ ======

Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======

About The Writer

V.S. Naipaul

Trinidadian-British writer V.S. Naipaul, full name is Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, (born August 17, 1932, Trinidad—died August 11, 2018, London, England), Trinidadian writer of Indian descent known for his pessimistic novels set in developing countries. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.

Descended from Hindu Indians who had immigrated to Trinidad as indentured servants, Naipaul left Trinidad to attend the University of Oxford in 1950. He subsequently settled in England, although he traveled extensively thereafter. His earliest books (The Mystic Masseur, 1957; , 1958; and , 1959) are ironic and satirical accounts of life in the Caribbean.

His fourth novel, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), also set in Trinidad, was a remarkable work and brought him major recognition. The novel is set upon the main character’s attempt to assert his personal identity and establish his independence as symbolized by owning his own house.

Naipaul’s subsequent novels used other national settings but continued to explore the personal and collective separation experienced in new nations that were struggling to integrate their native and Western-colonial heritages.

The three stories in In a Free State (1971), which won Britain’s Booker Prize, are set in various countries; (1975) is a despairing look at an abortive uprising on a Caribbean island; and A Bend in the River (1979) pessimistically examines the uncertain future of a newly independent state in Central Africa. (1994) is an

======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- DSE2T : World Literatures, Topic- V.S.Naipaul’s ‘Bend in the River’ ======

Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======essay like novel examining how history forms individuals’ characters. Naipaul’s other novels include (1967) and The Enigma of Arrival (1987).

Among Naipaul’s nonfiction works are three studies of India, (1965), India: A Wounded Civilization (1977), and India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990); The Five Societies—British, French, and Dutch—in the West Indies (1963); and : An Islamic Journey (1981). Naipaul was attributed the title knight in 1989.

In a Nutshell

REMARKABLE WORKS

a) “A Bend in the River” b) “A House for Mr. Biswas” c) “Guerrillas” d)“” e)“In a Free State” F) “Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples”

AWARDS AND HONOURS  Nobel Prize (2001)  Booker Prize (1971)

======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- DSE2T : World Literatures, Topic- V.S.Naipaul’s ‘Bend in the River’ ======

Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======

Literary Perspective of Post-Colonialism

 Post-Colonialism is a cultural criticism. It seeks to analyze the literary texts which have been produced in the countries which have come under the control of European colonial powers. Infact, Post-Colonialism involves the analysis of texts written during and after the colonial period in various countries.

In many works of literature, specifically those emerging out of Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, we meet characters who are struggling with their identities in the wake of colonization, or the establishment of colonies in another nation. For example, the British had a colonial presence in India from the 1700s until India gained its independence in 1947. We have to conceptualize that the people of India, as well as the characters in Indian novels, must deal with the economic, political, and emotional effects that the British brought and left behind. This is true for literature that comes out of any colonized nation. In many cases, the literature stemming from these events is both emotional and political. The post-colonial theorist enters these texts through a specific critical lens, or a specific way of reading a text. That critical lens, post-colonial theory or post- colonialism, asks the reader to analyze and explain the effects that colonization and imperialism, or the extension of power into other nations, have on people and nations.

Ama Ata Aidoo’s Life and Career

Ama Ata Aidoo is a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright and academic. She was born on 23rd March 1942 in Saltpond in the Central Region of Ghana. She was the Minister of Education under the Jerry Rawlings administration. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation to promote and support the work of African women writers. Some other sources ======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- C11T : Postcolonial Literatures, Topic- Ama Ata Aidoo’s ‘The Girl Who Can’ ======

Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======by Megan Behrent Brown University and Africa Who's Who 3rd edition stated that she was born on 31 March 1940. EARLY LIFE

Aidoo was born in 23 March 1940 in Saltpond in the Central Region of Ghana. She was raised in a Fante royal household, the daughter of Nana Yaw Fama, chief of Abeadzi Kyiakor, and Maame Abasema. She grew up "under the oppression of resurgent neocolonialism as a result of British aggression during the late 19th century" that was taking place in her homeland. Her grandfather was murdered by neocolonialists, and the tragedy, in turn, brought her father's attention to the importance of educating the children and families of the village on the history and events of the era. This led him to open up the first school in their village and influenced Aidoo to attend the Wesley Girls Highschool where she first decided she wanted to be a writer. EDUCATION Aidoo attended Wesley Girls' Senior High School in Cape Coast, from 1961 to 1964. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Ghana, Legon where she obtained a degree in Bachelor of Arts in English and also wrote her first play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, in 1964. The play was published by Longman the following year, making Aidoo the first published African woman dramatist. CAREER

Ama was appointed Minister of Education under the Provisional National Defence Council in 1982. She resigned after 18 months, realising that she would be unable to achieve her aim of making education in Ghana freely accessible to all. She has portrayed the role of African women in contemporary society. She has opined that the idea of nationalism has been deployed by recent leaders as a means of keeping people oppressed. She has criticized those literate Africans who profess to love their country but are seduced away by the benefits of the developed world. She believes in a distinct African identity, which she views from a female perspective. She worked in the United States, where she held a fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University, California. She also served as a research fellow at the Institute of African

======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- C11T : Postcolonial Literatures, Topic- Ama Ata Aidoo’s ‘The Girl Who Can’ ======

Compiled and Circulated by Samir Kuilya,Faculty Member,Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College ======

Studies, University of Ghana, and as a lecturer in English at the University of Cape Coast, eventually rising there to the position of professor. She has also spent a great deal of time teaching and living abroad for months at a time. She has lived in the United States, Britain, Germany and Zimbabwe. Aidoo is a patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature (alongside Dele Olojede, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Margaret Busby, Sarah Ladipo Manyika and Zakes Mda), created in 2013 as a platform for African writers of debut books of fiction. She obtained a Fulbright Scholarship award in 1988 and Mbari press short story prize. She contributed the piece "To be a woman" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan. In 2000 she founded the Mbaasem Foundation, a non-governmental organization based in Ghana with a mission "to support the development and sustainability of African women writers and their artistic output", which she runs together with her daughter Kinna Likimani and a board of management. Aidoo is the editor of the 2006 anthology African Love Stories.

======Sem-V, Eng. Hons. Paper- C11T : Postcolonial Literatures, Topic- Ama Ata Aidoo’s ‘The Girl Who Can’ ======