Modernity and Identity in V.S. Naipaul’sA House for Mr. Biswas, Miguel Street, and The Mystic Masseur

• Main Authors: Yi-shan Li, 李依珊
• Other Authors: Tee Kim Tong
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/26570808991707645454

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 99 === This thesis aims to, with the aid of Anthony Gidden’s and Stuart Hall’s theories on modernity and identity, discuss the process of changes initiated by modernity in the societies of V. S. Naipaul’s three Trinidad novels in his writing career: namely, The Mystic Masseur (1957), Miguel Street (1959), and A House for Mr. Biswas (1961). My argument is that in these Trinidad novels, the process of modernization is fragmenting the old and agrarian Trinidadian society, and therefore has caused rupture and discontinuities in people’s life. This fragment is actually a pertinent chance for both the protagonists and Naipaul to regain their genuine self and cultural identity by escaping from the limiting environment. In Chapter One, there is basic historical background information of Trinidad and of V. S. Naipaul. I will list out some key concepts of Anthony Gidden’s ideas of modernity, along with the ones of the importance of self-identity in a modern society. Moreover, Stuart Hall’s concepts of modernity and identity will be presented as well. Chapter Two, with some comparisons with The Mystic Masseur and A House for Mr. Biswas, will mainly focus on Miguel Street and on the impact of modernity on it. The institutional and economical changes caused by modernity lead to rupture and discontinuity in people’s life, and consequently, force them to search for self-identity. Chapter Three will move on to discussion of the self-identity formation of Mr. Biswas in A House for Mr. Biswas. During his growth and struggle in Trinidad, he finally gains his identity as an individual in a modern society. Moreover, his newly established sense of cultural identity will be inherited by his son, Anand. Anand serves an analogy to the boy narrator in Miguel Street whereas Ganesh in The Mystic Masseur is seen as an antithesis to Mr. Biswas. At last, I will define Naipaul’s sense of identity as a Trinidad-born writer.