postcolonial reading of two novels by v.s. naipaul half a life , the mimic men خوانش پسااستعماری دو رمان اثر وی.اس. نایپال نیمه زندگی ، مردان مقلد

the present paper offers a postcolonial reading of two of the best novels by v. s. naipaul – half a life and the mimic men – in five chapters. the focus of this research is on different notions of postcolonial criticism and their application on the two novels as discussed from homi bhabha’s and frantz fanons points of view. having introduced the life and literary career of v. s. naipaul in the first chapter, the thesis is followed with a survey of postcolonial criticism and concepts of ambivalence, mimicry, hybridity and marginality. in the third chapter of the thesis, naipaul’s novel half a life is studied from postcolonial perspective in which the situation of the main character willie is discussed as a colonial subject in the metropolitan london as he tries to mimic the culture of england but cannot associate with it that results in a sense of exile and alienation. chapter four deals with another novel, the mimic men, it has been tried to study ralph singh’s character as a politician and colonial subject living in a private hotel in london with special regard to the notions of mimicry, hybridity and marginality. ralph and brown engage in politics and in fanon’s terms, they are middle class bourgeoisie who try to nationalize their economy but, nationalization is only an illusion inaccessible under the colonial domination. this research analyzes how naipaul’s novels, the mimic men and half a life, show the clashing of the colonizing and the colonized cultures in different settings. when the heroes travel to london to continue their education they find london a disappointment. therefore, the formation of the identity is inseparable from ambivalence, hybridity, and mimicry which are the result of the effects of the opposing cultures on each other. ralph and willie are both the marginalized subjects in their colonized hometowns and the new brave world of england also brings nothing for them but a sense of exile and alienation. moreover, they are placed in a third space which is not totally the white culture nor totally their own. in fact, in-betweenness is a main problem for both of them. they cannot find a proper place as home and all places they travel to are important in their identity-formation processes. these exiled characters escape the disorder they feel in their country and by mimicking the dominant culture they want to be like the colonizer. but their mimicry is only a partial resemblance to that culture and there would be a mockery in their mimicry. by using english language as the representative of the dominant culture they try to mimic the colonizing culture. willie, in his compositions tries to give himself an english identity and pretends that he is a canadian boy who is ashamed of his own culture. when they travel to london, it is for both of them a place of great and final disorder and chaos.