The Pursuit Of Identity In A Hybridized Culture

V. S. Naipaul is one of the most discussed and controversial writers in the Western World. His winning of the Nobel Prize also arouses readers'doubt whether or not he deserves this honor for a lifetime's achievements novelist and for his travel writings. All these controversies and doubts contribute to his five writer identities: West India or Caribbean writer, Indian writer, Commonwealth writer, British writer, and postcolonial writer.Different from many postcolonial writers who appear mostly concerned with ideas and groups, Naipaul focuses on individuals in societies. He is interested in how people create themselves and advance in life. After the independence of colonized countries, the colonized people, likely losing the center, are eager to find an identified position belonging to themselves. The independence of the colonized countries doesn't mean the ending of the colonialism. Through all kinds of ways, colonial ideology enters the colonized countries. In A Bend in the River, great attention is paid to the construction of the individuals'identity and the ambiguities of freedom. Naipaul successfully describes the living conditions of the rootless and marginalized people like Salim, and their colonial predicament in search for home and identity.This thesis, focusing on the identity issue, presents an interpretation of Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River from the perspective of Homi Bhabhanian. Furthermore, this thesis interprets the main character Salim's identity crisis and then the process of identity re-construction in hybridity. Under the circumstance of the inlay of superior Western ideology, the loss and reconstruction of identity is inevitable. The author pays great attention to the spiritual condition of the marginalized people in the post-colonial society, and expresses his re-evaluation of the complicated dilemma of his own colonial situation.This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One illustrates the crisis of identity resulting from the conflict of modernity and tradition, basing on the Bbabha's idea that a new hybrid or subject-position emerges from the mixture of elements, challenging the present cultural identity. By using Bhabha's mimicry theory, Chapter Two interprets the collective identity search from the aspects of politic, education and economy. Then Chapter Three, based on the Third Space theory and the interpretation of the above two chapters, presents Salim and Indar's expectation of ending the exile life to keep a simple cultural identity, because of the ambivalence and hybridity of his identity. All in all, it is impossible for them to absorb some elements of the western culture by choice, because of his sticking to his native culture.