India, A Center Of Diasporic Circles

V. S. Naipaul—the Nobel Prize Winner in the year2001plays a paramount role in the domain of postcolonial literature. By virtue of his peculiar life orbit, extraordinary ways of thinking and acting, and perceptive narration, he strikes out a line for himself in the literary history. As a diasporic English writer of Indian Brahmin origin, Naipaul always floats between "the two worlds"—reality and illusion. The diasporic route of Naipaul’s is primarily circular, and India, where he is lost in a reverie, is the center of his circles.This thesis tries to probe into the diasporic features of his4India-relating works—The Enigma of Arrival and Indian Trilogies(An Area of Arrival, India:A Wounded Civilization and India:A Million Mutinies Now), and expound both similarities and dissimilarities in them, from the perspective of diaspora, via the postcolonial theory.This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one firstly presents a brief introduction of Naipaul, his writings and the four India-relating works, and then turns to the present researching situation at home and abroad, the foresight of researching his works and major arguments. Chapter two focuses on the exploration of diasporic literature in the20th century and expounds the postcolonial critic Said’s theory on exile, which constitutes the theoretical foundation of this study. Chapter three analyzes The Enigma of Arrival in detail, which is regarded as Naipaul’s autobiographical fiction. It noted down Naipaul’s diasporic life in England. Although he has arrived at his aspirational Utopia, he finds there is nowhere for his mind to arrive. Thus, he is floating between the reality and illusion all the while. Chapter four presents an interpretation of India Trilogies, and probes into Naipaul’s exile in India. The works are Naipaul’s profound reckoning with his ancestral land after his three encounters with India, which truly embodies his understanding of India transforms from anger, contempt, criticism into sympathy, concern, identification. Chapter five draws a conclusion that India is the only place where haunts his mind days and nights. What stays in his innermost heart is India no matter he is in Trinidad or England. He floats around reality and illusion throughout his life.