Floating Around Reality And Illusion

Among all the Nobel Prize Winners in the long history of one hundred years,V. S.Naipaul-the winner in the year 2001 is no doubt a very alternative one.As he strikes out a line for himself by virtue of his peculiar life orbit,writing career,ways of thinking and acting,he has been attached importance to,studied and controverted about by more and more experts all over the world.In such a "confusing turmoil", basing myself on "the two worlds" -reality and illusion reflected from his works relating to India,for the first time in China,I probe into the diasporic features of his 9 works relating to India(A House for Mr.Biswas,The Enigma of Arrival,An Area of Darkness,India:A Wounded Civilization,India:A Million Mutinies Now,A Bend in the River,Half a Life,Magic Seeds and A Writer's People:Ways of Looking and Feeling),expound both similarities and dissimilarities in them,from the angle of diaspora,via the theories of time and space relationship,round structure,samsara notion,polyphony,postcolonialism,image,limboic state,and the third space."The works relating to India" here refer both to the India Trilogies whose setting is India and to the other six works in which the heroes are Indians and Indian descendents,and the religion,culture,custom and nature are closely connected with India.By studying the nine of his representative works,the dissertation offers both similarities and dissimilarities in diaspora.In the preface and the first chapter,the dissertation indicates first that Naipaul is a diasporic writer floating around the world all his life.As Naipaul is a writer with complex experience and a variety of works,this part studies his life story and works, the present situation and the foresight of studying his works,studying themes and methods and diasporic study relating to India in turn.We can sense that this dissertation makes some breakthrough in studying the diasporic features concerning India:it emphasizes that the diasporic route of Naipaul's is mainly circular,discussing diaspora from both reality and illusion and indicating the angle of vision being focalized on India and Indian nature,and etc..Basing on this,the dissertation expounds in detail both similarities and dissimilarities of diasporic features in the 9 elaborately-chosen works of Naipaul's from various angles.Then,in the second chapter,the dissertation discusses the nature of diaspora-reality and illusion,which reflects the first common diasporic feature. The five standpoints of this chapter are:continuity or ceasing,dreams of yesterday being the sigh of today,the past hard to trod,life beginning from the age of forty,and displacement of time.The circular feature that not only time is in chaos,but it is also focalized on the present is spread out.Thus,we realize that time relationship is of great importance in diaspora.The round diasporic route is the focus of this dissertation,which is developed in the third chapter.Another common diasporic feature-the interlacing round diasporic route is studied in the third chapter,via the following angles:circles from small to big, bitter illusionary circles,reaching and leaving the center,circular struggle of a middle-aged Indian,looking at the others from the center.Different diasporic features of the nine India-relating works are probed into in the fourth chapter.We can find both complexities of the diaspora and conversion of reality and illusion in Naipaul's works through polyphony,postcolonialism,image, limboic state,etc.In this way,we can catch on the hybridities,complexities,reality and illusion in the diaspora of Naipaul's works.However,from where can Naipaul find his true being since he cannot find his "root" neither in England nor in India? The key lies in his own writing.In this chapter, the "Third Space" theory will be applied to and the great roles in which his own writing plays in the diaspora are embodied.Basing on the above research,the dissertation draws the following conclusion: diaspora is Naipaul's soul and India is the place where he is lost in a reverie.Via his own circle of writing,Naipaul connects the realistic circle with England as the center and the illusionary circle with India as the center.What stays in his innermost heart is India though he may be writing various pieces or staying in England.He floats around reality and illusion all his life.In all,the importance and originalities of this dissertation lie in the following things:it focalizes itself on the diasporic features of Naipaul's works relating to India, especially his two latest ones-Magic Seeds and A Writer's People:Ways of Looking and Feeling;,it emphasizes that the diasporic orbit is mainly circular;there are both realistic and illusionary diasporas;it expounds diaspora from time relationship;the theories-polyphony,image,limboic state,and the third space are used to expound diaspora;besides,it also touches upon the relationship between writing and diaspora and the implied deep meanings of some of the names of the characters in the works.