The Post-colonial Discourse Analysis In Naipaul’s Works

V. S. Naipaul is a typical post-colonial writer. His works disclose how the western countries control and influence the Third World in the post-colonial era, especiallyIndian and African countries. His works also reflect the conflict and fusion betweencultures and reveal the sickness of the people in post-colonial era.Based on Foucault’s discourse theory and Said’s Orientalism, this thesis willanalyze the post-colonial discourse in Naipaul’s works—A Bend In The River and HalfA Life. In Foucault’s discourse theory, he explains the relationship between power anddiscourse. Discourse is controlled by power and power is derived from the discourse.Foucault thinks the power is not only the representation of wealth or military affairs, butalso a kind of alterable energy flowing through the whole society. In Foucault’s opinion,power is just a way for the people to realize their purpose and control the whole world.Said’s elaborates the unequal rights between the Orient and Occident in Orientalism.The western countries only provide an excuse for considering the Orient as the weekcountries so that they can attack the Orient in a reasonable way.This essay will analyze the post-colonial discourse in Naipaul’s works through theexemplification. Combining Foucault’s relationship between power and discourse withSaid’s Orientalism, we will firstly use an important concept in Foucault’s theory—“Gaze”—to reveal the unequal rights between the Orient and Occident in Naipaul’sworks. The Indian “crack people” always play the role of being gazed and gazing othernormal people. Therefore, they get confused about their self-identities. Secondly, wewill prove the relationship between discourse and power by analyzing the discourse ofthe novels so as to reveal the expression of the post-colonial discourse in Naipaul’sworks. As the “crack people”, Indians usually get higher education in western countriesand embrace western cultures. They use the so-called power to express a special kind ofdiscourse, which is controlled by power. This is exactly the relationship betweendiscourse and power in Naipaul’s works. Moreover, we will find out the reasons whythe Orientals change their attitudes to the post-colonial rules through the influencebrought by the post-colonialism. As the object being gazed by the Occident, theOrientals realize inequality so that they begin to reject the western culture. They try tocreate new cultures and new thoughts. However, they do not have any reliable localculture as the foundation. Hence, they have to make use of the western culture to createeverything. This is the special thought of the “crack people” who accept and rejectwestern culture at the same time. Through the post-colonial discourse analysis ofNaipaul’s works, the main purpose of this thesis is to reveal the discourse meaning andideas in Naipaul’ works—the confusion about rootless life, misty identity and the searchof truth.