Reluctant Surrender: The Analysis Of A Bend In The River From The Perspective Of Foucault’s Power Theory

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932-) was the winner of the Nobel Prizefor literature in2001, who was born of an Indian family in Trinidad. Nowadays, he isan outstanding immigrant writer in the world. Naipaul’s representative work A Bendin the River is a story about a turmoil African country which is just independent fromwestern countries and can not get rid of authoritarian rule.Previous studies on A Bend in the River are mainly from the perspectives ofpost-colonialism, identity dilemma, narrative techniques, and symbolism etc. Fewhave ever noticed the aspects of power in the novel. The thesis attempts to interpretA Bend in the River from the perspective of Michel Foucault’s power theory. Byanalyzing the oppression of the African country and people’s resistance to power inthe novel, it depicts that the African country in the novel is an authoritarian societywhich is permeated with disciplinary power. In this despotic society, ubiquitouspower controls and transforms people, thus enabling them to “tame”. However,people in the novel are not completely succumb to the disciplinary power, and theyresist in their respective ways. Characters’ struggle of getting rid of dictatorial powerand dilemma are not only that of people in the novel, but also that of contemporarypeople in the whole African region.Apart from introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of three parts:Introduction is to give the basic information of the author and the novel, andthen through studying the literary review of Naipaul and A Bend in the River, thuswork out the structure of the thesis, finally, explain the relevant theory briefly.Part one is to analyze the disciplinary techniques in A Bend in the River, whichis made up of three subtypes, that is, hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment,and examination. Through discussing how the three disciplinary techniques areconducted in the novel to normalize people in the post-colonial African country, thethesis will show the characters in the novel are under the omnipresent suppression.Part two is to interpret the resistance to disciplinary power in A Bend in the River, which consists of three subtypes, namely, resistance of intellectuals, resistanceof African male locals, and the females’ resistance to African patriarchal authority.By analyzing the resistance of disciplinary power of three different groups in variousways, the thesis will demonstrate that the all sorts of disciplinary power in thedespotic African country are doomed to be resisted by every person.Part three is to show the outcome of resistance and the causes of its result. Afterdemonstrating the results of resistance of three different groups, this part mainlydiscusses the enlightenment brought by invalid resistance and its causes.The last part is to make a conclusion of the thesis. By analyzing A Bend in theRiver from the perspective of Michel Foucault’s power theory, the thesis reveals thelong-term source of African chaos, that is, it is not submissive yield, but theineffectiveness and reluctant surrender resulted from spontaneous revolt; therebyindicating that only take effective control of power and exert organized resistancecan change the chaotic situation in African area, and establish a new order in thispiece of land.