From a Quest for Moorings to an Oracle: A Study of V. S. Naipaul

Abstract

V. S. Naipaul is the dispossessed child of the Raj who has come on a long and marvellous journey to be the recipient of Nobel Prize for literature in 2001 for combining existing genres into a style of his own in works that compel readers to see the presence of suppressed histories. He is the descendant of indentured labourers shipped from India who was born in Trinidad and his early childhood familiarised him with all sorts of deprivations and depreciation material as well as cultural constraints. The migration within British Empire from India to Trinidad gave him the comfort and command over English language. Naipaul is considered the leading novelist, who has emerged from the English-speaking Caribbean, he happens to be a master of English prose style and he is known for his studies of alienation -- an individual's sense of being on the outside of society. His works range from short stories, through the novel, to travel narratives. He took many journeys to India and Africa. During these journeys against all likelihood his quest leads him a spirit of pure comedy that runs through his early writings. Naipaul lived on the margins of two societies and cultures and he created characters like Bogart in "Finding the Centre", who too lived on the margins and trying to find a centre. His world is varied and complex and hence all attempts to find a centre are going to lead to over simplification.