Loss And Subversion:A Study Of "Mimicry" In Miguel Street

Vidiadhar Surajparasad Naipaul,the Nobel Prize winner of literature in 2001 is well-known for describing the life of the marginalized in the third world.A collection of his short stories—Miguel Street published in early years describes the daily trifles of the marginalized living in a street named Miguel Street.It takes Trinidad,the former British colony as the setting of the short stories.After its publication,Miguel Street won the 1959 Somerset Maugham Award for Naipaul's superb art of writing and its profound meaning.Miguel Street also helps in establishing Naipaul's status in western literary circle.Miguel Street takes a street as the epitome of the former British colony Trinidad and shows the real life of the former colonized in it.Though the protagonists are different in characteristics and their stories are different,the colonized try to survive or subvert through "mimicry" of metropolitan culture,which coincides with the characteristics of"mimicry" in postcolonialism.Until now,scholars at home and abroad have analyzed Miguel Street from the angles of space theory,carnival theory,feminism,narratology and postcolonialism.However,in postcolonial studies on Miguel Street,the analyses of"mimicry" are relatively rare and lack of depth.The thesis will analyze the postcolonial term and strategy—"mimicry" in Miguel Street to reveal the results of "mimicry"—loss after the failure of "mimicry" and subversion through "mimicry".Moreover,it reflects Naipaul's sympathy for the colonized in Trinidad and his reveal and satire on colonial oppression.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one gives a brief introduction to Naipaul and Miguel Street.It also points out the significance of the thesis and forms the layout of the thesis.The second chapter presents a detailed literature review on Miguel Street based on the studies of the relevant document literature,and finds out the research gap at present.Then,this chapter gives a brief introduction to postcolonialism and emphasizes on the definition of "mimicry".The third chapter firstly discusses the causes of "mimicry".They are the colonials'lack of belongingness and the oppression and attraction of colonizers' cultural assimilation.Then,this chapter analyzes the "mimicry" in different aspects of metropolitan culture,including lifestyle,violence,pursuit of occupation and language in Miguel Street and reveals the loss caused by "mimicry".At last,the chapter discusses the subversion in election and religion through "mimicry".The fourth chapter analyzes the Caribbean culture in Trinidad in Miguel Street—calypsos and Creole which represent real life of the colonized in Trinidad.The fifth chapter summarizes the main points of the thesis.Naipaul molds a group of mimic men and blends Caribbean culture of Trinidad in Miguel Street.It realistically represents the daily life of the colonized in Trinidad and the distinctive features of Caribbean culture which reflect Naipaul's sympathy for the colonized in Trinidad and his reveal and satire on the colonial oppression.Also,the thesis tries to give a comprehensive study on "mimicry" in Miguel Street by analyzing the "mimicry" in different aspects of culture,to reveal the dilemmas of survival of the colonized and the marginalized so as to enrich the domestic researches on Naipaul and his works.