V.S.Naipaul:Cultural Identity Construction And Identification Under The Context Of Post-colonization

V.S. Naipaul,a typical immigrant writer, belongs to the well-known trio of immigrant literature in the Great Britain, the other two being Rushdie and Ishiguro kazuo. Naipaul rises from a complicated background with India as his motherland, Trinidad as his birthplace and British as his nationality, which is held liable to his cultural identity crisis. Hence, the pursuit of cultural identity constitutes an ever-lasting theme in the majority of his quasi-autobiography works. This paper attempts to depart from the pursuit of Naipual’s cultural identity, chooses works that bear the marks of Trinidad, India and Britain respectively as the object of study and explains the his adventure towards cultural identity from various aspects and angles by perusing relevant works. Having recourse to the theories of cultural identity, post-colonialism and third space and from the angle of diaspora, the author conducts an in-depth discussion of five exemplary works——Miguel Street, The Enigma of Arrival, An Area of Darkness, India:A Wounded Civilization and India:A Million Mutinies—in an expectation to probe into the social, cultural, and historical causes responsible for his identity confusion, identify the pith and features of his works and reveal the practical significance for the society. Through the study, we can reach such a conclusion that Naipaul’s cultural identity is multi-dimensional and hybrid, a result of inter-influence and inter-action of Trinidad, India and British culture. Finally, the travelling, writing and retrospecting of his cultural identity contribute to his heterogeneous and composite cultural identity.The introduction ushers into Naipaul himself and his works, then is followed by the study status both home and abroad, study viability, arguments and methods of this paper. The first section analyses Naipaul’s multi-dimensional cultural identity and discusses how he is affected by the three spiritual homes (Trinidad, India and Britain). Miguel Street is employed in section two which vivifies the mosaic city life in Miguel street, analyses the escapism throughout the work and exposes the cultural identity crisis of the rootless. A study of the India trilogy in section three—India:An Area of Darkness, India:A Wounded Civilization and India:A Million Mutinies Now mirrors the change of attitude towards his mother land:aversion, understanding and the tolerant pilgrimage to seek cultural root. The Enigma of Arrival, Naipaul’s autobiography story in section four is probed into so as to discuss how Naipaul is affected by the decline of British culture and how his cocktail cultural identity is defined and identified. Last, the conclusion part gives an explanation of the influence of multi-cultural identity upon literary creation. As far as Naipaul is concerned, the multi-cultural identity arms him with the essential qualities to comprehend cultural diversity as well as the opportunity to observe the world and life from a vantage point. In this point, Naipaul has made a prestigious writer by his exceptional background.