A Social And Cultural Analysis Of V.S. Naipaul’s Indian Trilogy

V.S.Naipaul is a British writer born in a Indian Brahmin family in Trinidad.He is a Nobel laureate,and also a very controversial writer.His works are an important part in British immigrant literature.Indian Trilogy is one of the series of V.S.Naipaul’s travel writing.The three books cover nearly 30 years of history in Indian society.Naipaul is shocked by the poverty and cruelty of India during his first visit.To know more about India,he traveled to India two times later.With repeatedly inquiries and reflections Naipaul made a deep analysis of Indian civilization,which is in his eyes the core reason of India’s defeat.Finally,with more understanding of India and its people,Naipaul identified the power and resources of India’s restoration.As for literary criticism,Naipaul’s works are always connected with post-colonial theories;“rootless” and “exile” are the usual key words in the criticism of Naipaul’s works.With close reading,this thesis points out that Naipaul’s inquiry of India is also the inquiry of his own cultural identity.Due to Naipaul’s special life and education background,he observed India unavoidably from outside with western values.This thesis will do analysis on Naipaul’s inquiry and his attitudes change of India in connection with Indian social and cultural tradition and reality.Naipaul’s opinions about India society reflect the conflicts of two different cultures and civilizations.Naipaul’s inquiry of India provokes thinking about the developing countries in the process of modernization.And also,the cultural contrasting and inquiry provides a realistic significance in dealing with the clash and reconciliations in the time of globalization.