The Historical Writing Of African Bush

A Bend in the River is one of the representative works of V.S.Naipaul,the winner of Nobel Literature Prize in 2001.Naipaul is not only a master in literature,but also a recorder and spokesman for the third world.In the form of literature,A Bend in the River records the bitter trip of Naipaul’s soul and body going deep into Africa.It reveals multiple difficulties confronting the newly independent African country and Naipaul’s thoughts about the modernization of postcolonial countries.In the field of literary criticism,most criticisms concerning the novel focused on the aspect of cultural studies to study Naipaul’s cultural identity;few papers have interpreted the novel from the perspective of New Historicism.This paper is going to interpret A Bend in the River from the angle of New Historicism.By applying the three important concepts proposed by Greenblatt—“circulation”,“subversion” and“containment” to the analysis of an unnamed African country,the change of the “bush image” of Africa is presented.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction to A Bend in the River,V.S.Naipaul’s life and his major literary works as well as the research method,significance of the paper and the literary review.Chapter Two expounds the theoretical base—New Historicism,covering its formation background,representatives,important concepts and practical significance to the study on the novel.Chapter Three elucidates the combination of fiction and facts in the novel by exploring the corresponding relations of the protagonist Salim to the author Naipaul and the Big Man to Mobutu and exposing the situations of the postcolonial representatives in Africa.Chapter Four states a chaotic world in the bush—the disillusion of “decolonization” from three aspects: the incessant bloodshed in the bush,an extremely corruptive government and the casual man-woman relationship.Chapter Five expresses “the containment of African hopes” through expounding the rise and decline of the new Domain,the African native Zabeth’s unsuccessful attempt to go out of the bush as well as the growing-up and awakening of African new man Ferdinand.The conclusion part firstly presents a review to previous parts,and then makes an analysis of the deep political reasons underlying the predicament people were in.Through an intensive reading of the text and relating it to history,the causes that led to the people’s great sufferings are revealed in the paper,which thus can become a reminder to the countries of the third world in their course of modernization.