The Dilemma of the Other: Diaspora and Identity in V. S Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the River

Abstract

One of the bonafide interests of Postcolonial Literature is to deal with the issue of the cultural aspects’ disorder caused by colonialism. With the purpose of understanding the literature of any period, there should be a reference to the society of this era, for so, culture in literature has taken the biggest part of importance in most of the novels written by authors recently, and even during the last century. Therefore, the present research deals with the cultural dislocation along with the loss of identity of the Indian people after achieving their independence. It also opens the discussion over the effects of the waves of multiculturalism caused by the European nations, and the changeable hybridization of cultures which drove them lost. Moreover, the thesis attempts to show the position of Naipaul while claiming these social phenomena through his novels A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the River. All in all, this work tackles cultural aspects with more emphasis on identity and diaspora from a Naipaulian postcolonial perception.