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A Study of Place in the Novels of VS Naipaul A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Towards a New Geographical Consciousness: A Study of Place in the Novels of V. S. Naipaul and J. M. Coetzee Thesis submitted by Taraneh Borbor for the qualification of Doctor of Philosophy in English literature The University of Sussex September 2010 1 In the Name of God 2 I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations of the University of Sussex. The work is original except where indicated by special reference in the text and no part of the thesis has been submitted for any other degree. The thesis has not been presented to any other university for examination either in the United Kingdom or overseas. Signature: 3 ABSTRACT Focusing on approaches to place in selected novels by J. M. Coetzee and V. S. Naipaul, this thesis explores how postcolonial literature can be read as contributing to the reimagining of decolonised, decentred or multi-centred geographies. I will examine the ways in which selected novels by Naipaul and Coetzee engage with the sense of displacement and marginalization generated by imperial mappings of the colonial space. My chosen texts contribute to the decentralizing tendencies of postcolonialism by deconstructing the tropes of boundaries from the perspective of those who have been marginalized on the basis of their race, gender or geographical origins. The work of Edward Said, bell hooks, Edward Soja, Gillian Rose and Homi Bhabha provide a means for me to explain how the displaced subjects relate to places in the postcolonial context. Accordingly, Coetzee’s and Naipaul’s visions of place and geography are examined in this study in relation to the situational complexity of their habitats. Naipaul’s view of place in terms of the binary oppositions between the colonial and metropolitan places is discussed in relation to the sense of displacement that is generated by his colonial upbringing. On the other hand, Coetzee’s view of place as the product of imperialist divisive discourses is also interpreted against the historical contest over land and belonging in South Africa. It is argued that both writers contribute to the decentralizing mission of postcolonialism by locating themselves in the margins and advocating sensitivity towards the tropes of boundaries that subject people to displacement and marginalization. Part I discusses A House for Mr Biswas, The Enigma of Arrival, Half a Life and Magic Seeds. I will explore how Naipaul’s sense of marginality results in his view of the world in terms of a binarism between the centre and the margin. However, I will argue that among these novels, the last three acknowledge that the longing for homeliness is an unlikely quest for a displaced subject, and that the 4 imperative of the postcolonial world requires the displaced to see the world as unhomely, changing and hybrid. Part II interprets Coetzee’s experience of apartheid in South Africa as a legitimate reason for resisting the ways in which the dominant powers in the social and cultural spheres implement marginality. In Waiting for the Barbarians, and Life and Times of Michael K and Foe, Coetzee deconstructs boundaries and asserts the entitlement of the displaced and the marginalized to the land and its representation. The distinctive approaches taken by these two canonical writers remind us of the increasing necessity, yet the complexity, of moving towards a decentralised and dynamic view of the world. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Stephanie Newell, for her intellectual comments and guidance and Dr Denise Decaires Narain for her invaluable support, encouragement and belief in me throughout my studies. I am grateful to Professor Marcus Wood for his inspirational and generous advice that opened the door for me at the start of this project. Special thanks too to Professor Vicky Lebeau for being unfailingly supportive and for following attentively the progress of this thesis in the last year. In addition, my thanks go to Grainne O’Connell for her friendship and for reading parts of this thesis and providing me with helpful suggestions. Finally, I owe an immeasurable debt to my family for their endless support from a distance. Thanks to the joy and encouragement of my brother, Salar, I was constantly reminded that I could enjoy the work even at breaking points. Above all, my parents, Jaleh and Jahangir, through their emotional and financial support, their patience and their love made this work possible. I dedicate this thesis to them. 6 CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS AND REFERENCES..........................................................................8 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................10 I. The politics of place in post-colonial theory: ..............................................................14 A. The creation of colonial space in the Caribbean and South Africa ........................14 B. Colonial space in colonial discourses ...................................................................18 C. From displacement to emplacement.....................................................................26 II. How to inhabit the world? .........................................................................................37 III. Land, home and belonging in V. S. Naipaul and J. M. Coetzee ...............................46 Chapter One: Placing Naipaul and Place in Naipaul......................................................50 I. A Writer from a wrong place .......................................................................................50 II. From displacement to placelessness........................................................................60 Chapter Two: A House for Mr Biswas: the Unhomeliness of a Colonial House............63 I. Homelessness and the psychological need for home ................................................66 II. The unhomely houses of Mr Biswas..........................................................................74 III. Trinidadian society: colonial or creole?.....................................................................84 Chapter Three: The Enigma of Arrival: New Ways of Seeing England.........................100 I. The enigma of encounter with England ....................................................................102 II. Decay of the house of England................................................................................110 III. Finding a place in English.......................................................................................118 Chapter Four: Half a Life and Magic Seeds: Dispensing with the Idea of Home and Considering New Ways of Belonging ..........................................................................132 I. India, a place divided by castism ..............................................................................135 II. Africa; unstable and futureless: ..............................................................................147 III. England, as a potential site of hybridity: ................................................................154 Chapter Five: Placing and Place in the Novels of J. M. Coetzee .................................169 I. Coetzee’s place and his transcendence of place:....................................................169 II. From dispossession to reclamation of the land.......................................................177 7 Chapter Six: Construction of a Colonial Desert Landscape in Waiting for the Barbarians ....................................................................................................................................184 I. Mapping out the political geography through ‘othering’.............................................187 II. Reimagining a colonial territory as a barren landscape ...........................................201 Chapter Seven: Keeping the Memory of Belonging Alive in Life and Times of Michael K ....................................................................................................................................213 I. Michael K’s growing consciousness in the face of displacement .............................216 II. Gardening as a trajectory to keep the memory of belonging alive:..........................223 III. The struggle over land in the context of the liberation of South Africa....................232 Chapter Eight: Advocating a New Approach to Geography in Foe..............................244 I. The adventure that led to colonial domination .........................................................248 II. Retelling the story from the perspective of castaways and island dwellers .............253 III. The recreation of Robinson Crusoe in Coetzee’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech 266 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................274 BIBLIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................281
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