V.S Naipaul in the Line and Light of Colonial Culture Sunil Pathak1, SC Singh2, Mukti Upadhyay3, Laxmi Chaudhary4 1Asst

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International Journal of Recent Research and Review, Vol. II, June 2012 ISSN 2277 – 8322 V.S Naipaul in the Line and Light of Colonial Culture Sunil Pathak1, SC Singh2, Mukti Upadhyay3, Laxmi Chaudhary4 1Asst. Prof., Department of English, YIT, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 2(Retd.) Assoc. Prof and HOD, Department of English, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur 3Asst. Prof., Department of English, YIT, Jaipur, Rajasthan 4Research Scholar, Department of English, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur Email: [email protected]

Abstract - ‘Identity’ in the terms of, nationality, I. THE WRITER IN THE MAKING language, and the rights as a true citizen of the ‘The Joy of writing lies in discovering truths that country one habitat and the culture- remains one of the most- urgent, as well as hotly disputed are otherwise often elusive.’ topics, in literary and cultural studies. For nearly Vidiyadhar Surajprasad (VS) Naipaul, a two decades, it has been a central focus of debate ‘Postcolonial Mandarin’ [1], like the sun for psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, and cultural piercing the prolonged darkness has emerged on materialist criticism. At the same moment it has the Britain’s soil of colonial writing, as ‘a been subjected to a searching critique. But, In the prophet’ of our ‘world-historical moment’, and case of V.S Naipaul, especially, when they are has produced a luminous account of the most viewed with a wider sense, neo-colonial view is not compelling literary works, of the last fifty years. a controversial issue to him, but is paramount to He is Britain’s the only living Nobel laureate changing people’s perceptions. Thus, A humble (2001), in literature. effort has been made in this paper with the help of the intersection between ‘diasporic’ and Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932 and ‘postcolonial theories’, to move beyond the migrated to England in 1950, when he won a assumptions, and offer a more differentiated and scholarship to the University College, Oxford. definite view, of what has too frequently been Nothing sustained him afterwards, except the taken for granted, and hereby, proffer to determination, to become, a writer. He is the substantiate V.S Naipaul as an ‘epitome’ and ‘a author of many novels, including A House for front man’ of the dominating culture: the Mr. Biswas (1961), A Bend in the River (1979), ‘Colonial culture’ and explore the original themes and In a Free State, which won the Booker Prize prevalent in his novels and also, examine his for him. He has also written several non-fiction advancement from a regional writer to one with works based on his travels including, India: A more worldwide allure, whose novels are viewed as representing a turning point in his development Million Mutinies Now (1990) and Beyond Belief: and effectiveness as a colonial writer. Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (1998), A Wounded Civilization (1977) KeyWords - Colonial culture, Colonial discourse, and so on. He was knighted in 1990 and in 1993 Cultural-immigration, Multi- Culturalism, Third- World, Imperialism, Diaspora, Identity. was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. A season when many were just awakening to realities, Naipaul had been writing for about more than 20 years, and

21 established as an unrivalled and the most be said, are Naipaul’s ‘the fount of knowledge’ influential writer of contemporary world of of the colonial and the ‘diasporic’ epoch. literature. This will honestly be not only simplifying his work, but also, formulate a better familiarity II. APPROACHING THE ‘COLONIAL with and understanding of his works for the EPITOME’, V S NAIPAUL upcoming scholars. To accomplish the theme of present research III. NAIPAUL: A MODERN PROPHET paper effectively, the major chefs-d'oeuvre of The biography of a writer or even the Naipaul will be considered under three different autobiography will always have Incompleteness. heads: Firstly, the ‘Roots and Continuity’, under At present, the most rational debate two sections viz., ‘Naipaul: A Modern Prophet’ characterizes, West Indian literature, as a and ‘Colonial Reflections of the East and West’, tradition within a tradition, an outgrowth and passing through which the origin of the Naipaul extension of the western mode of writing [2]. in contrast to his acceptance or non-acceptance This creates an environment of literature just in a different land will be probed into. Secondly, like the colonial experience of the West Indian the ‘Assimilation and Difference’ will be cross- writers themselves, who are striving to find an examined under the next two segments i.e., identity for themselves and their dexterity that is ‘Floating Between the Three Worlds’ and distinct-from the borrowed forms of the colonial ‘Naipaul’s Ideology of Colonial Discourse’ to authorities. make a speculation of his political and Naipaul's belief in a new form of authoritative control over his ethical and cultural autonomy for the human is liberating. He is a identity, which retains his distinctness. Finally, writer who encourages us continually to the ‘Construction of a New Identity’ under the question, to write about the world with the heading ‘Colonial Writing, A sine qua non of freedom of a person with no home, no country, Naipaul’s Identity’, where Naipaul’s own efforts and no affiliations. His testimony, his witness, to build up a collective national identity under set the bar high for other writers. British civilization, on the western land will be V.S. Naipaul changed the way the fiction is critically analyzed. understood and written, without qualification. This paper pursuit, analyses what is unexplored As he has said so well, "The books have to look or unsaid, or less said, by the critics and makes after themselves, and they will be around as long an approach to the psychological and cultural as people find that they are illuminating". His forces, that support the notion of Naipaul’s books will certainly look after themselves, assimilation with the colonial world, with a taking on the personified life of text living on complete picture of the mind and body under outside and apart from their author. Naipaul is, colonialism. foremost, an ascetic writer, dedicated to seeing Also, it is intended to, make an in-depth and the world clearly and without sentimentality. He insightful study, of the existential predicaments has often said, "Good writers have always of the various protagonists, the techniques as looked for truth". well as the style-aphoristic and epigrammatic-of In Patrick French's recent authorized biography writing, adopted by the writer that connotes him of Naipaul, The World is What It Is (1988), we as ‘a no mean performer’ in the world of writing find, that Naipaul is just increasingly and writers. Including all of his major literary straightforward about his life. His forthrightness, works for the period 1957 to date, which must his apparent lack of repentance, cause 22 discomforts. The society has got to examine the Sensibility’ to transform rage into precision and writer and the writing on a social podium. turn the harsh reality into an experience Undoubtedly, the ‘colonial experience’ is the perfectly, with a vigilant-style and allows events theme that confronts each West Indian writer, to speak with their own intrinsic satire. and his attempt is a resolute confrontation between himself, his inner needs and his history. IV. COLONIAL REFLECTIONS OF THE It is worth quoting, the comments of James EAST AND WEST Gordon Farrell (1973), about the relevance of Firstly, Naipaul’s autobiographical work the theme, in the following passage: concerns itself with the bitter knowledge that, West Indian fiction is distinctive for its intense for all its pretensions to the contrary, the English social consciousness. Faced by a society formed canon is an incarnation of English imperialism. through slavery and colonialism, whose values Secondly, in his ethnographic and travel have never been defined before, the novelist in literature, Naipaul addresses the lie of the the West Indies must recreate experience and ‘civilizing mission’. In other words, closer simultaneously create the standards against examination reveals that, for all its apparent which such experience must be judged. concern for the cultural and civilizational Criticism of West Indian fiction, itself, has ‘betterment’ of its colonial subjects, the English tended to be an evaluation of sociological truth, empire was a profoundly narcissistic enterprise. perhaps to the detriment of analysis, which aims And finally, in his rewriting of a familiar at making statements about literary merits [3]. postcolonial trope, Naipaul battles with the In absence of this universal premise, it would be discovery that the ‘real’ England bears little or very difficult to establish the literary merit of no relation to the one imagined and constructed any West Indian work of art. Even, Edward Said in the colonial periphery. The subsequent section has argued, that Naipaul "allowed himself quite looks at Naipaul’s disclosure of his fraught consciously to be turned into a witness for the relationship with the imperial metropolis, with a Western prosecution"[4], promoting "colonial specific focus on his negotiations with the mythologies about wogs and darkies". English canon. Describing the East and The Naipaul inscribes in The Middle Passage (1962), West, Naipaul introduces the association “Living in a borrowed culture, the west Indian, between the British capital and the offshore more than most, needs writers to tell him who he spheres of its empire. Raymond Williams in his is and where he stands” [5]. The Country and the City (1973) puts in the The primary relevance, of this paper assignment, English pastoral as a generic evidence for the in today’s literary society, is, to visualize metropolis and the rural periphery and also Naipaul’s literary heritage, which responds to revels the pastoral underpinning of the the quest for cultural identity, to him, and the colonialism. The oeuvres of Naipaul, An Area of peoples, who are culturally or ethnically, Darkness (1964) and The Loss of El Dorado circumscribed and dwelling within a colonially (1969), suggest, a similar ideology of the assimilated world. colonials in the East and the West for the setting Naipaul in a true sense can be venerated as, a on the English colonies and hence establish and ‘modern prophet’, who with his literary-intellect, the colonial identity. When Naipaul travelled elaborately carries on the tradition and culture India in desire of discovering his childhood that originates in the soil of his ‘Belles-Lettres’. memories, he found England in its place. He possesses the unparalleled ‘Philosopher Everywhere, he found this unwelcome surprise 23 of ‘Englished landscape’. Naipaul has reacted to Now, he establishes himself into a community of such disparity colonialism in the East, where the travel writers whose expeditions are temporally literary history of the word ‘British’ from wide-ranging from India to Trinidad to Oxford Austen to Forster, makes a swing from a (London) as well as encompasses the three geographical idea to a cultural ideal. ‘Between worlds of socio-cultural space. Naipaul declares the two uses of the word’, as he writes, ‘lie a in his 2001 Nobel lecture that his ‘aim has hundred years of industrial and imperial power’. always been to fill out [his] world picture’, and The West is the yet another overlooked plot for this travel writing is the greatest aid which England’s imperialism. Naipaul on himself extended technically, allowing him to take in a describes it as a colonial aspect of the taste for wider and more complex ‘world view’ [6]. pastoral’. It must be said that Naipaul skillfully These comments seem to support readings of his transforms a beautiful description of the imperial work as ‘trans-spatial’ and ‘trans-cultural’. This justice into an influensive narrative, which is paper discusses the relational process that more concerned with a struggle over the connects, without merging, his subjects signification of Englishness. To such positions at various phases of his life. imperialism of the East and West, Naipaul Naipaul’s worldwide visions and narratives of denies forgiving the colonial world for its own political affiliation, do intimate the possibility of uncontrolled defeat to the English myths; this associations beyond national, ethnic and cultural theme is well described in A Bend in the River margins of the three worlds. (1979). In a nutshell, Nipaul’s studies of the East and the West bemoan the egocentricity of VI. NAIPAUL’S IDEOLOGY OF COLONIAL colonial empire. DISCOURSE Naipaul, allegedly, remains free to animate the V. FLOATING BETWEEN THE outdated diction of Imperial-empire. Joseph THREEWORLDS (INDIA-TRINIDAD – Epstein writes, ‘It may be that among living LONDON) writers only Naipaul is able to speak of Critics see Naipaul, almost fit to claim this ‘barbarian peoples’; only he can say things identity acquired into a new ‘cultural hybridism’ that... in the mouths of others would straight at once, on behalf of these facts: First, his away be declared racism’ (cited in Nixon, 118). childhood Trinidad being, a former British Nixon would argue, Naipaul’s literary success in colony, he is a writer from ‘a country with a England, especially through the 1970’s, accrues, history of colonialism’; second, he migrated in part, from his racially secured license to from Trinidad to England for his education and condemn the third-world. But Said, vetoes to start and continue his career as a writer; and Naipaul from the postcolonial counter canon, third, he is descendent of a migrant family, as and coins him as the most shameful variety of his ancestors came to Trinidad from India as eurocentricism. He writes of him as a ‘third- indentured labourers, all of these countries being worlder’ denouncing his own people, not former colonies of the British Empire. because they are victims of imperialism, but Naipaul, in one of his text in a sequence, because they have an innate flaw, which is that comments ‘People come and go all the time; the they are not English. world has always been in movement.’ His Through the pages of Edward Said’s composition A Way in the World (1994) Orientalism, we learn that the non-West (during inculcates a clustered but interwoven ideology. 80’s) having been occupied with the

24 constructions and representations of poet and winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in imperialism, a new tendency hunts for a reversal Literature), Chinua Achebe (1930-, Nigerian of the imperial gaze, with the colonized cultures novelist and poet), Irving Howe (1920-93,an and their ‘travelling and writing figures’ made of American literary and social critic), and Salman England and it’s empire, when they arrived as Rushdie (1947-,an Indian-born British novelist emigrants, expatriates, travellers, in the ‘mother and essayist). country’. Each of these perspectives, as we To sum up, he has been confronting with his perceive, offers an alternative of Naipaul and his readers -ranging from, a critic to a philosopher- oeuvre. Albeit still incipient, it must be the shift with a wide spectrum of literary oeuvres, for in attitude and the changing nature of more than half a century. For this reason, Patrick postcolonial critics who condemn Naipaul Swinden, (a senior lecturer in English literature explicitly as an apologist for empire, a few at the University of Manchester) observes him as recuperation reveals Naipaul as a man who is a “one of the finest living novelists in ‘casualty and victim’ more than an associate of English”[10]. imperialism. But, viewing through the glass of Of large and varied body of Naipaul’s ‘literary colonial discourse analysis, Naipaul has craft’, the readers, critics and reviewers, - emerged as a native colonial performer, perceptive and appreciative of it- have by and conspiring opportunistically with imperialism large, focused on various aspects and themes, and neo-imperialism reforms of the third world. such as, the ‘Third World identity’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘racism’, ‘mythology’, ‘postcolonialism’, ‘multi- VII. COLONIAL WRITING, A SINE QUA culturalism’, ‘migration’, ‘gender’ and a great NON OF NAIPAUL’S IDENTITY many. But, the aspect of ‘Colonial Culture’, in his works has still remained unexplored. V.S. Naipaul, often described, as a writer of the Perhaps, no complete and comprehensive work ‘Colonial Literature’, and with no other has been done in this segment yet. reference point, than the British Empire. It is not Thus, a humble but inquisitive effort has been to wonder, when the ‘Literary Academicians’ made at length, throughout this research paper, regard him as, ‘the grand old man of British to explore and analyze what is unexplored or literature’s [7]. Above all, he has acquired, one unsaid, or less said, by the critics and make a of the most contested literary reputations, of critical approach, to the psychological and ‘Contemporary Literature’ [8]. A few literary cultural forces, to substantiate Naipaul, as an figures, in recent memory could excite, such ‘epitome’ of the dominating ‘Colonial Culture’ passionate admiration as, he has. along with his assimilation and absorption into He has, all-time, remained among, the the colonizers’ frame, with a complete picture of ‘conscious literary adherents’, as, ‘an extremely the mind and body under colonialism. controversial personality’ [9] on account of Also, the theme of this paper discovers its which, his readers have been sharing his ‘wealth intensity in the ‘contemporary world’, where of literary art’. It would be worth mentioning, a cultural identity subsists as a sine qua non to the few literary legends, who chant the praises of emigrated ethnic groups, which demand the Naipaul for his exquisite mastery of English endorsement of their cultural identity, into the language, such as, Edward Said (1935-2003,a mainstream, of ‘the country of migration’ of well-known Palestinian American Literary critic ‘imperial horizon’ that now prevails, like a and theorist and an outspoken pro-Palestinian customary truth. activist.), Derek Walcott (1930-, a Caribbean 25 In the ‘Western intellectual climate’ Naipaul, of ironic view of human relations, and occasionally his own free-will, appreciates the codifying and the author's voice simply overwhelms his institutionalizing, often the crucial aspects of narrator's [12]." literary study, with the theme of ‘cultural Subsequently, Landeg White, in V. S. Naipaul: A identity’ and mull it over, as something, that has Critical Introduction (1975) points to the been going on, for a long time, which now -in Naipaul’s social inadequacies, and the modern epoch -is apparently a necessary remarks:“Novels which set out to expose the posture, in the new category of ‘Commonwealth inadequacies of a society whose history is one of literary studies’. slavery and exploitation are acceptable if the The roots of thoughts coincide with Naipaul’s prevailing tone shows sympathy and in, reviewing the Press’ book for The New understanding” [13]. Statesman, 24 September 1965: Researchers and authors have also, explored into “Things move so fast nowadays, even in the Naipaul’s ambivalent feelings about the Literature Schools. Commonwealth writing, as “clan’set in his literary works at a length of we understand it is so new, and already it is prose as well in an epigrammatic form of being picked to pieces… it all seems to have sentence, and have regarded it -the been codified already. I know now, for instance, psychological explanation of his hostility that the difference between the United States and towards mobilization for ‘political change’: Canada is that the United States had a revolution “The clan that gave protection and identity, and and Canada didn’t. But I also get the impression saved people from the void, was itself a little that the point has been made so often before and state, and it could be a hard place, full of has become such a received idea that it is now politics, full of hatreds and changing alliances almost without meaning. Then there is the West and moral denunciations. It was the kind of Indian with his search for identity.” family Life I had known for much of my Judith Misrahi-Barak, [11] the editor of the childhood: an early introduction to the ways of bilingual book, significantly appreciates this the world, and to the nature of cruelty. It had uniqueness of opinion about the Early given me, as I suspected it had given Kala, a Trinidadian Naipaul does sustain with the unity taste for the other kind of life, the solitary or less of thoughts amalgamated with the diversity of crowded life, where one had space around perceptions that beautifies and enriches the oneself ” [14]. literary portrait of Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Selwyn Cudjoe, in his popular work entitled V.S Naipaul, that can be witnessed with any point of Naipaul: A Materialist Reading, (1988), portrays view. Naipaul’s concern for the Imperial world, in his Diane Mehta, (The Atlantic Monthly, Nov., works:“A writer who has aligned himself with 2001), on the one hand criticizes, "Naipaul’s, the values and preoccupations of the dominant Half a Life has a few problems, including some Western culture,’[15] Derek Walcott, about stilted dialogue and a scrambled, distracting Naipaul’s prolific “literary art”, (as cited at, chronology.’But on the other hand, praises him, www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/25/poetry. by affirming about his candidness and honesty biography) hails him as “our finest writer of the of narrative style: English sentence” has attracted a great deal of “His style is so frank, it seems intimate, and the critical curiosity. awful characters are studied and well crafted. We discover in the study, of Bill Ashcroft and Behind the matter-of-fact style is a cuttingly his co-authors, to define the Naipaul’s theory of

26 postcolonial literature in their famous oeuvre, essays, travelogues, the volumes of letters and The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in the interviews of and about Naipaul, by the Post-colonial Literatures (1989), and philosophers and critics-those dealing with maintain:“The idea of ‘post-colonial literary ‘postcolonial criticism’- allow us to deem that, theory’ emerges from the inability of European there are sufficient documentations to theory to deal adequately with the complexities substantially consider, Naipaul under the and varied cultural provenance of post-colonial characterization of colonial culture and colonial writing” [16]. writer. A strong support to this notion is, made by Recapitulating the instance of John McLeod Robert Young in Postcolonialism: A Historical [20], in his Beginning Postcolonialism, puts Introduction (2001)[17], firmly deems and forward, the necessary elements to spurt points out to the political theory that it is an Naipaul, as supreme artist of the ‘colonial amalgam of the optimistic and pessimistic culture’ not withstanding that he was descended consequences of the peoples (nations) their from a migrant family with a history of cultures which may be either affected by colonialism and its harsh consequences. hybridized city cultures, dominated colonialism Very interestingly, Laura Ciolkowski, in The or metamorphosed cultures. New York Times Book Review, on September 10, For Naipaul’s, The Overcrowded Barracoon 2000, remarks:"He (Naipaul) elegantly (1972), critics consider, it as a book sufficing the expresses hard-earned wisdom about literature reasons, why Naipaul, chooses the colonial and culture, the political stakes of history and societies, along with that of England, for a the relationship between the writer and the majority of his literary works, including the world" [21]. travelogue inscriptions. In a review of the Enigma of Arrival (1987), Edward Said, argues for Naipaul’s fiction and Bernard, Levin moved on to describe the author the travelogues, as an allegedly ‘unsympathetic (Naipaul), as “an inquiline, an animal that lives portrayal’ of the ‘Third World’. He delivers that in the nest or abode of another species: it was a Naipaul allowed himself quite consciously to be reference to the stranger’s in-between status that turned into a witness for the Western Naipaul thought fit very well his position as a prosecution, “promoting what Said classifies as writer, in this as in his other works” [22]. “colonial mythologies about wogs and darkies” Prolific writer Brent Staples, comments, for [18]. Naipaul’s interpretation of history through his Theroux differentiated more intelligently in his two wonderful creations, The Loss of El Dorado useful analysis of Naipaul’s early texts and (1969) and A Way in the World (1994) on the, ‘ pointed out that Naipaul like many other an archaeology of the colonial impulse’ [23]. postcolonialist condemnations boosts up the Both Nixon and Cudjoe, attribute to Naipaul’s concept of ethnic and racial diversity fundamental, social and cultural values to his egotistically. Theroux further criticizes Naipaul psychological reactions. Although, Cudjoe for his ethnocentric self that takes him far away constructs from Naipaul’s writings a psycho- from other postcolonialist writers disabling him political biography of the man. In London to establish his own standard and class of calling: V.S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarin, identity [19]. Rob Nixon analyses the rhetorical strategies of A full-length study, of the fiction and non- Naipaul’s travel narratives for evidence of his fiction, together with the reviews, articles,

27 commitment to the idealized imperial England for an identity for themselves and their writings of his imaginings [24]. which indeed has the “colonial experience” not To sum up it can be said that, a perceptive study unlike Naipaul’s whose attempt is a tenacious of Naipaul’s ‘literary fount’ reveals, that he confrontations between himself, his inner needs subsists, entirely under the interpretation, of and his history with its bitter and painful colonial culture whose journeys from that of his intensity. Naipaul’s feeling is reflected through childhood Trinidad to the British-London and his sea of novels of living in a borrowed culture, then in nearly most of the colonial spheres in needs to tell the writers of the world who is he finding the center -where he experiences several and where he does stand. He has promptly colonialisms -are spatially and temporally wide metaphorised the colonial experience for his ranging. texts. Naipaul has been able to successfully Thus, Naipaul’s unrivalled ‘art of literature’, has prove that West Indian literature is independent acquired immense ‘hegemonic qualities’ and original of its kind, which serves him as the worldwide, with an authoritative leitmotiv over best example by becoming the Nobel laureate on Colonial Culture. This exploratory paper on the colonial land. In a nutshell, Naipaulian texts Naipaul, from the perspective of colonial are a special blend of humility and arrogance in culture, is not to prove critics’ wrong for their which lies his true genius. comments on him (Naipaul) since they represent their respective cultural and political positions, IX. REFERENCES instead, It intends to significantly procure the [1] Rob Nixon, London Calling: V.S. Naipaul, thought-provoking and deep-rooted theme that, Postcolonial Mandarian, New York: Oxford the text wants to convey, through this paper University Press, 1992, p.37. assignment which doing so, I shall find a special [2] R. D. Hamner, V. S. Naipaul, New York: satisfaction. Twayne Publishers Inc., 1973.p 1. [3] F.G.Rohler, “Predestination, Frustration and Symbolic Darkness in Naipaul’s A House for VIII. CONCLUSION Mr.Biswas,” Caribbean Quarterly No.1, In absence of this universal theme, It would be March, 196, 3. very difficult to assess the literary merit of any [4] “Edward Said on Naipaul” Archived from The West Indian work of art without first considering original on 10 october 2007. its sociological relevance. Thus the foremost [5] V.S. Naipaul, The Middle Passage, London: Andre Deutch, 1973.P.68. relevance, of this paper assignment in the [6] V.S. Naipaul, ‘Two Worlds’, in Literary literary society, is, to visualize Naipaul’s literary Occasions: Essays, (London: Picador, 2004 heritage, which brings to him and all others who [2003], pp. 181-95(p.191; p.193). are culturally and ethnically circumscribed. [7] Carter, R. and McRae J., The Routledge Naipaul said, only nonfiction could capture the History of Literature in English: Britain and complexities of today's world. It was a profound Ireland, London: Routledge, 1997. observation. And it speaks to a larger cultural [8] Walder, Dennis ‘How is it going, Mr Naipaul?’ situation. Naipaul’s literary creation adopts an Identity, Memory and the Ethics of Post- outgrown and extended mode of writing that can Colonial Literatures. Journal of certainly be said as sine qua non of his Identity Commonwealth Literature, 2003. 38(3), pp. 5– 18. shows his writing as a literature as a tradition [9] Judith Misrahi-Barak, ed., V. S. Naipaul: A within a tradition. This paper also encompasses World in Tension, Montpellier: Cerpac, 2004, those west Indian writers who are still striving pp. 17-30 28 [10] Selwyn R. Cudjoe, V.S.Naipaul: A Materialistic Reading, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, p.3. [11] Judith Misrahi-Barak, ed., V. S. Naipaul: A World in Tension, Montpellier: Cerpac, 2004, pp. 17-30 [12] Diane Mehta, in review of V.S.Naipaul: Half a Life, in The Atlantic Monthly, 288, no.4 (November, 2001): 144-45. [13] Landeg White, in V. S. Naipaul: A Critical Introduction London: Macmillan, 1975, p. 12.1 [14] Selwyn R. Cudjoe, V.S.Naipaul: A Materialistic Reading, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, p.5. [15] Selwyn R. Cudjoe, V.S.Naipaul: A Materialistic Reading, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, p.3. [16] Ashcroft, Bill; Griffiths, Gareth and Tiffin, Helen, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures, London, Routledge,1989. [17] Young, Robert. Postcolonialism: A Historical Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. [18] Edward W.Said, 1, March 2002, Edward Said on Naipaul. Achieved from The Original, 10, October 2007.) [19] Theroux, V.S Naipaul: An Introduction to His Work, New York, Africana, 1972. [20] McLeod, John, Beginning Postcolonialism: Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000,pp. 33. [21] Naipaul V.S., Reading & Writing - A Personal Account New York New York: New York Review of Books, 2000. [22] Naipaul V.S., Finding the Center: Two Narratives, London, Penguin, 1984. p 32. [23] Lillian Feder, Naipaul's Truth: The Making of a Writer, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,USA, 2001. [24] Rob Nixon, London Calling: V.S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarian, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, p.37.