V.S. Naipaul (Modern Novelists) - Hardcover

King, Bruce Alvin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312086466 ISBN 13: 9780312086466

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993

Synopsis

This is a user-friendly introduction to the novels and the non-fiction of V.S. Naipaul that will be of interest both to the student and to the specialist. It examines the language, structure, themes and development of Naipaul's writing, setting the novels in their autobiographical, philosophical, social and political, colonial and post-colonial contexts. Attention is given to Naipaul's existentialism, relationship to his literary models, use of Indian philosophy and vision of the Indian diaspora. Naipaul is shown to use similar formal literary structures and to have recurring themes and preoccupations during the four distinctive periods of his writing.

About this title

Review:

Review of the first edition:

'The introduction to this volume is perhaps the best 15-page essay on Naipaul and his art; and the subsequent eight chapters are written with the authority that King is known to possess on post-colonial literature and in a style that is both crisp and admirably textured. Apart from the deft synopses of the plots of the works under discussion, the insightful and analytical evaluations that are presented, one distinct asset of this study is the first-hand acquaintance that the author has with the West Indies, India, and the other areas that Naipaul himself writes about....No beginning student should fail to read this work: no scholar will want to miss it.' - A. L. McLeod, Choice

From the Back Cover:

V. S. Naipaul is a reader-friendly introduction to the writing of one of the most influential contemporary authors and the 2001 Nobel laureate in Literature. Bruce King provides a novel by novel analysis of the fiction with attention to structure, significance, and Naipaul's development as a writer, while setting the texts in their autobiographical. philosophical, social, political, colonial and postcolonial contexts. King shows how Naipaul modified Western and Indian literary traditions for the West Indies and then the wider world to become an international writer whose subject matter includes the Caribbean, England, India, Africa, the United States, Argentina, and contemporary Islam.

Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition of V. S. Naipaul now includes an expanded Introduction, and discussion of his most recent novels A Way in the World and Half a Life, his Nobel Lecture, Naipaul's writings on Islam, and a survey of the main criticism by other writers and postcolonial theorists.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0312086466
• ISBN 13: 9780312086466
• Binding: Hardcover