On V.S. Naipaul’s Travel Literature

V. S. is an immigrant writer who was influenced by multiple cultures. He was born in Trinidad of Indian heritage, and lives in Britain. This multi-cultural background gave him the passion to pursuit and seeks for his own cultural identity. This enthusiasm can be seen both in his fictional and non-fictional works. His non-fiction works consist of a variety of styles and thus are innovative.This paper studies V. S. Naipaul’s travel writings and essays in his non-fiction works. By close reading, the paper analyzes the themes of his travel writings, and summarizes the characteristics of these writings. Based on Postcolonial Theory, through analyzing Naipaul’s rootless background, we point out the ultimate theme of his travel writing is to seek for his own identity.This paper has seven parts besides the Introduction and the Conclusion:In the Introduction, we reviewed the current status of Naipaul research. We believe there is not enough Naipaul research done in China. We also discuss the significance of the travel writings to Naipaul.The body of this paper consists of five parts:Chapter one is the overview of the characteristics of Naipaul’s travel writings. We first compare Naipaul’s travel writings to other British travel writings from different periods in history, and conclude that Naipaul’s travel writings inherit and expand the traditions of the British travel writings. We then point out that the production process of his travel writings is his way to pursuit his cultural identity. Lastly we analyze the "Hybridity" of Naipaul’s writing.Chapters two, three and four analyze the theme of Naipaul’s each travel writing and his attitudes and comments on the countries he visited. Through the analyses in this paper, we find that Naipaul holds criticism to these countries and regions from a perspective of "Orientalism."Chapter five analyzes Naipaul’s two more recent travel essays:A Turn in the South and India:A Million Mutinies Now. We point out that the narrative form of Naipaul’s travel writings changes from subjective to a combination of subjective and objective. This change means Naipaul gets rid of the narrow "Oriental perspective" and becomes more open-minded.In the conclusion part, I analyze Naipaul’s close yet distant attitude to the three cultures he comes from. This attitude not only forms Naipaul’s "rootless" cultural identity, but also makes his travel writings a hybrid. His new style of travel writing has become an inspiration to other immigrant writers who have similar experiences and background.