The Predicament, Anxieties And Roles Play Of Intellectuals In The Postcolonial Third World

As an intellectual from the Third World, Naipaul holds that the priority for a writer is to involve himself into the real world with his own conscience rather than simply make up stories. We can, from his speech, perceive his sincere morality and ultimate concern for intellectuals as the marginal. The theme"intellectual"has always been a hot issue in the postcolonial critique. The representative novel A Bend in the Novel is chosen to illustrate the intellectuals'predicaments and anxieties in the postcolonial Third World from the perspectives of postcolonial discourse and postcolonial psychology. Under such predicaments and anxieties, intellectuals from different geographical locations play different roles. The reason why the writer can make up such intellectual characters lies in the writer's own experience and social background. Accordingly, the writer wants to pin great hope on intellectuals through the novel, featuring strongly the tragic-optimism.Introduction includes information about Naipaul himself, his works and honors, criticism on V.S. Naipaul at home and abroad, oversights on Naipaul scholarship, and a brief introduction to A Bend in the River and arrangement of the thesis.The first chapter analyses the predicaments and anxieties of intellectuals in the postcolonial Third World. First, elaborates some general definitions related to postcolonial studies. Second, clarifies different views about intellectuals in the present postcolonial study and then discusses their predicaments and anxieties in the postcolonial Third World, especially in the African world.The second chapter examines roles play of intellectuals in the postcolonial Third World. Under the postcolonial context, intellectuals from different geographical locations resort to different roles play: diasporic intellectuals play the role of subversion, European intellectuals the role of exiles, and indigenous intellectuals the role of mimicries.The third chapter explores the reason why the writer can portray such intellectual characters. Naipaul himself is a diasporic intellectual, and his concern about the intellectuals in the half-made society is closely related with his personal experiences.Although in A Bend in the River the intellectual are presented as"gods always fails", they still insist on speaking the truth to the power. Naipaul pins great hope on intellectuals in the postcolonial Third World. In conclusion, A Bend in the River is a novel of tragic-optimism rather than offering a thorough dark vision of the postcolonial Third World.