A Marginal Man’s Pursuit And Reconstruction Of Self-identity

As a Nobel Prize winner for Literature,V.S.Naipaul is widely regarded as an outstanding post-colonial writer in contemporary world literature.His works mainly reveal the survival plight of the third-world races and the fight for their identities in the post-colonial environment,which expresses the author’s cross-regional human care.A House for Mr.Biswas is a novel based on the author’s father,depicting a story of Mr.Biswas,a descendant of Indian indentures who longs for a house of his own in Trinidad.This thesis mainly employs Spatial Criticism to analyze the protagonist Mr.Biswas’ s plight as a marginal man in familial and social power spaces and his seeking and reconstruction of identity in psychological space.The thesis consists of five chapters.The first chapter briefly introduces the author,the novel and the theory of spatial criticism.The literature review is also included in this chapter.The second chapter illustrates Mr.Biswas’ s marginalization in familial space and analyzes the causes of his identity crisis.The third chapter analyzes the different cultural features of Hanuman House and Port of Spain,two typical social power spaces in the novel,pointing out that the essence of Hanuman House is an Indian culture enclave overseas,and Port of Spain is the microcosm of western colonial world,where Mr.Biswas attempts to seek the identity of his own.The fourth chapter analyzes Mr.Biswas’ s pursuit of his own house and the ways to reconstruct his self-identity in psychological space.The conclusion is reached in chapter five.House as a spatial image contains abundant metaphorical and symbolic meanings.For Mr.Biswas,house symbolizes independence,freedom and success.His perseverance for a house of his own reflects a beautiful hope held by the marginalized groups of the Third World who persistently pursue identities and a sense of belongings in the post-colonial society.