An Analysis Of The Protagonist’s Cultural Identity In The Enigma Of Arrival From The Prospective Of Post-colonialism

V.S.Naipaul is regarded as one of the representative British immigrant writers in contemporary postcolonial literature.He is well-known as one of the three leading figures in British immigrant literature,along with Salman Rushdie and Ishiguro Kazuo.The Enigma of Arrival is a semi-autobiographical novel of V.S.Naipaul.In the novel,the inner spiritual world of an ex-colonial diaspora writer and his exploration journey are vividly described.The protagonist of the novel blindly worshiped British culture and negated his original culture of Trinidad and India,during his early years in Trinidad.In pursuit of English writer identity,he went to England for study during his youth age.He attempted to explore his own writing style by observing and describing the world,and he also attempted to verify and explore his own cultural identity in travelling and writing.Based on postcolonial theory,this thesis used the close reading method to analyze the protagonist’s cultural identity in The Enigma of Arrival.The study found that the protagonist has found the balance between his British culture identity and his original culture identity in decades of travelling and writing.He eventually established his own multicultural hybrid identity,which provided a significant reference for people with the same background and experience.This thesis includes three chapters between the introduction part and the conclusion part.In the introduction part,a brief and relatively comprehensive introduction of Naipaul and The Enigma of Arrival,the domestic and overseas research status,the significance and theory foundation of the thesis will be given.The first chapter of the thesis analyzes the root cause of the protagonist’s cultural identity crisis.Western imperial countries caused the hybridity of race and culture and the absence of one’s nationality in the colonies,and carried out the colonial education in their colonies to beautify themselves and to vilify the colonies.Influenced by western imperial culture,the protagonist blindly worshiped English culture and alienated his original culture of India and Trinidad.However,after arriving in England,he found that everything was merely an illusion that cultural imperialism made.The germination of self-consciousness,the huge gap between the reality and his ideal,and the multicultural background caused the protagonist’s cultural identity crisis.The second chapter analyzes the exploring process of the protagonist’s cultural identity.Having lived in England for many years,the protagonist gained a new understanding of England.He realized that British Empire had declined and was no long the former British Empire.The protagonist gradually got rid of the shackles of colonial education of imperialism and began to accept his original culture.He constantly revised his understanding of England,India and Trinidad in travelling,and he also had a new understanding of himself.By writing and reflection on life and death,he accepted his own national culture and history.The third chapter analyzes the construction of the protagonist’s cultural identity.The protagonist re-recognized his English cultural identity and accepted his original cultural identity of India and Trinidad.He found the advantages of his multi-cultural background.The multicultural background decided that he couldn’t identify only with the British cultural identity or any one cultural identity.He accepted the concept of multiculturalism and reconciled with his cultural identity of Trinidad,India,and Britain.He allowed multiple cultural identities to coexist and finally built a multicultural hybrid identity.The conclusion part makes a brief summary that the protagonist was caught in cultural identity crisis under the influence of cultural imperialism.He couldn’t identity with both British cultural identity and his original cultural identity of Trinidad and India.However,after many years’ exploration he accepted the concept of multiculturalism and constructed his multicultural hybrid identity.Although the colonial era is over,the influence of imperial culture still exists.The thesis aims to help readers to understand the theme of the novel and the development of V.S.Naipaul’s world outlook and values on one hand;the thesis also aims to guard readers against neo-colonialism,cultural imperialism and cultural hegemonism on the other hand.In the multicultural context of globalization,they should learn to locate and maintain their cultural identity by establishing a correct world outlook and values system.When pursuing their own cultural identity,they shouldn’t blindly accept western culture and deny one’s own culture.