FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHY TO POLITICS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF V. S. NAIPAUL'S FICTION (TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO)

V. S. Naipaul's early fiction explores the third world and themes of deracination and alienation from a uniquely autobiographical perspective. The novels of Naipaul's apprenticeship document Trinidad life and also reveal Naipaul's extremely complex attitude towards not only that world but his own former self. A tension is created in these works between the fictional necessity of a sympathetic treatment of his material and the therapeutic impulse to denigrate his material. In A House for Mr. Biswas Naipaul temporarily resolved this tension through a Dickensian combination of myth and sentiment.;After A House for Mr. Biswas Naipaul's writing undergoes a series of transformations as he begins to tackle subjects outside of Trinidad and as he grows interested in political and social questions dealing with the third world. In Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion Naipaul writes about England and appears to thoroughly suppress his autobiographical impulse, but closer examination reveals the novel to share Naipaul's special concerns. In The Mimic Men Naipaul engages the problem of the proper role of autobiography in fiction. Almost as if the novel were an experimental test case Naipaul indulges the autobiographical impulse to the fullest, thereby revealing its serious limitations. Naipaul exorcized the autobiographical element by working through it.;In a Free State contains the first of Naipaul's post-autobiographical fictions. Naipaul highlights the differences between the two modes by including an autobiographical frame around the fictions. Although these extracts treat subjects similar to the ones in the fictions, the differences between the extracts and the fictions are immediately apparent. In these fictions Naipaul developed an impersonal style geared to undertake a fresh look at the larger political and social variations on his own experience.;In Guerrillas and A Bend in the River Naipaul focuses on the third world, unfolding a grim vision of greed, ambition, and brutality. Although these elements were present in the early novels the impact of their presence was diminished by their role in Naipaul's personal drama. Naipaul's development makes clear that the alternative to the private autobiographical novel is the public social or political novel.