A Study Of Narrative Perspective In V.S.Naipaul’s Novels

Naipaul, who is known as “the Father of Caribbean literature”, has won the2001Nobel Prize of Literature. He is also one of the most famous writers all over the world.He was born in Trinidad to an Indian family, and then he furthered his study in Britain.After that, he travels around the world. All of these multicultural backgrounds facilitateNaipaul’s multicultural narrative perspective.This dissertation only takes examples from the following three books: MiguelStreet, In A Free State, and Half A Life to analyze and explain the function of narrativeperspective used in V.S.Naipaul’s works. This dissertation also points out that narrativeperspective plays an important part in developing the plot and deepening the theme ofhis works.Based on the study of narrative perspective theory and different scholar’sclassifications of narrative perspective, this dissertation contrasts and analyzes differentscholar’s classifications and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages. And then,this dissertation analyzes Naipaul’s works—Miguel Street, In A Free State, and Half ALife from two main aspects: outer perspective and inner perspective. In addition, thisdissertation explains in detail how Naipaul makes use of different narrativeperspective’s traits to deepen the theme of his works, to show protagonist’s inner worldand highlight their characteristics.The study result proves that: on one hand, Naipaul is good at using outerperspective to give a background information of his story, to create the ambience andsketch people’s appearance and behavior. On the other hand, he has done well in usinginner perspective to analyze the inner-world of people, in order to better reveal theiremotional changes. In Naipaul’s works, outer perspective and inner perspectivesupplement each other to emphasize the theme——the obscure characters who wereborn in the Third World countries make great efforts to search the way that leads toadvanced cultures of western countries. They are searching for the safetyzone——“culture and civilization” of their own, from their own country and metropolitan countries, from colonial countries and suzerain. It is in the cultural treksthat they are searching for their cultural identity and sense of belonging.