Description
Book SynopsisV.S. Naipaul was one of the most influential and controversial writers of the twentieth century. His writings on colonialism and its aftermath, on migration and landscape, and on cultural loss and creativity, were both admired and criticised by a wide global audience. But what of his relationship to the region of his birth? Born in Trinidad, of Indian ancestry, and spending his professional life in England, Naipaul could be dismissive of his Caribbean background. He presented himself as a citizen of nowhere, or else, of the globalized, postcolonial world. However, this obscures his intense competition, fierce disagreements and close collaboration with other Caribbean intellectuals, both as a schoolchild in colonial Trinidad, and as an internationally celebrated author. V.S. Naipaul, Caribbean Writing, and Caribbean Thought looks again at Naipaul''s relationship with his birthplace. It shows that that the decolonising Caribbean was the crucible in which Naipaul''s style and outlook were formed. Moreover, understanding Naipaul''s place in the history of the region''s politics and letters sheds new light on the work of celebrated contemporaries, Derek Walcott and Kamau Brathwaite, George Lamming and Maryse Condè, Elsa Goveia and Eric Williams, Sylvia Wynter and C.L.R. James. Literary criticism, intellectual biography, and an essay in the history of ideas, this book offers a new account of Caribbean thought in the decades after independence. It reveals a literary culture of creative vibrancy, in an era of unprecedented change.
Trade ReviewThis book's most significant intervention is...in its expansive rethinking of his relationship with other Caribbean thinkers. Perhaps due to the book's subject, Ghosh does not shy away from exploring the changing attitudes and cultural politics of authors such as Lamming, Wynter, and Brathwaite. Indeed, he presents these shifts in political thought over time, not as errors or oversights, but rather as carefully attuned reactions that respond to the climate of the moment. The book also provocatively invites further study of Naipaul's impact on writers from other global contexts. * Alex Fabrizio, New West Indian Guide *
I began by suggesting that it would be difficult to find anything new to say about Naipaul, yet I find that Ghosh has managed to tease out a number of ways in which to do just that. * Lynne Macedo, University of Warwick , Modern Language Review *
Although Naipaul's resistance to and even rejection of his Caribbean roots is well known, William Ghosh persuasively argues for the literary-historical value of reading him in a Caribbean context. [...] One of the book's strengths is its presentation of a network of Caribbean writers and thinkers grappling not only with the same historical concerns, but also with the impact of their work on one another. * Alex Fabrizio, New West Indian Guide *
It is not an easy task to write anything new about an author as well known as V. S. Naipaul, [...] yet I find that Ghosh has managed to tease out a number of ways in which to do just that. Not only does Ghosh resituate Naipaul's writing as a major contributory factor to many of the views on colonization held by Caribbean intellectuals, he also shows that Naipaul's whole body of work can be read as a genuine attempt to 'redefine these communities, and their postcolonial experiences'. * Lynne Macedo, Modern Language Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: A House for Mr Biswas and the Theory of the West Indian Novel 2: The Loss of El Dorado and 'Colonial' Historiography 3: Caribbean Eyes: V.S. Naipaul and Other Traditions of Travel Conclusion
