third world intellectuals in v. s. naipaul’s fiction: the mimic men, a bend in the river, magic seeds

this thesis attempts to study the representations of the third-world intellectuals in three fictional works by the british-educated trinidadian nobel-winner v. s. naipaul: the mimic men, a bend in the river, and magic seeds. the first one recounts the story of ralph singh’s sense of alienation, his experiences as a colonial politician, and his struggle to give order to his disorderly world through writing his memoir. ralph singh is a prototypical colonial character. preoccupied with the concept of identity, ralph is an intelligent and sensitive person confused by the plural but unequal society in which he is raised. a bend in the river is the story of salim’s attempts to settle in a state undergoing the traumas of self-definition after independence. it is another instance of a colonial man’s search for a safe place in a displaced post-colonial world. finding solace in economic prosperity, salim helplessly tries to both (re)construct his dispossessed place and (re)fashion his lost identity. he also typifies the intellectuals who are always in exile. another representative of this ever-in-exile group is willie chandran of magic seeds. allowing one identity after another to be thrust upon him, willie hopes to arrive at his true self by molding into other’s expectations of him. he is also revealed to be a post-colonial writer who, typical of a third-world intellectual, struggles for a sense of identity and of connection to his past codes of values and tradition. the critical approach adopted for the analysis of naipaul’s three novels largely draws on edward w. said’s theorizations articulated in his representations of the intellectual, orientalism, and the world, the text, and the critic. using edward said’s theoretical insights, this study aims to examine naipaul’s representations of the third-world intellectuals.