V. S. Naipaul Criticism
V. S. Naipaul, a Trinidadian-born English writer renowned for his clear prose and incisive critique of postcolonial societies, has left a profound impact on contemporary literature. His body of work, spanning novels, essays, and travel writing, often blurs the line between autobiography and journalism. Naipaul's early works, such as Miguel Street and A Flag on the Island, draw deeply from his Trinidadian upbringing and showcase his talent for narrative skill and humor, while also exploring themes of alienation and cultural deprivation, as analyzed in The Comic Island and Shipwrecked and Carnival.
Naipaul's later works, like In a Free State, shift to a starker examination of the effects of colonialism on cultural identity, forgoing the humor found in his earlier writing. This collection is acknowledged as a "masterpiece in the fiction of rootlessness" by Paul Theroux and further discussed in In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul and Darkest Naipaulia. His portrayal of emigrants' struggles with identity and prejudice highlights the complexities of postcolonial identity and has garnered both praise and criticism, as indicated in Potpourri of the Antilles.
Naipaul is acclaimed for his mastery of prose and dialect, as John L. Brown observes, praising his "dark" vision of the world. His works, including A House for Mr. Biswas and A Bend in the River, are integral to his exploration of global themes and postcolonial landscapes. His nonfiction works, such as The Middle Passage and An Area of Darkness, provide critical insights into the societies he examines, often sparking controversy for their critical perspective on developing world cultures, particularly Islamic societies, as explored by David Gilmour in Beyond Belief.
His autobiographical novel, A House for Mr. Biswas, combines humor with a poignant reflection on his personal history and cultural dynamics. The mixed critical reception of Naipaul's works underscores the complexity of his literary contributions, with some critics focusing on his controversial views, while others, like George Packer, highlight his profound impact on literature. His depiction of post-colonial tensions and societal challenges is exemplified in works like Guerrillas, analyzed by Benjamin DeMott and Anthony Boxill.
Naipaul's ability to convey the influence of British colonialism in his narratives is noted by John Mander, while his exploration of cultural and post-colonial themes extends to his examination of India in India: A Wounded Civilization, critiqued by John Ayre. Furthermore, Naipaul's portrayal of Africa's complex realities in A Bend in the River is lauded by John Updike for its exploration of stagnation and darkness. Through his bold and original narrative style, Naipaul challenges Western misconceptions, offering a profound and sometimes controversial commentary on the complexities of the post-colonial world.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Naipaul, V. S. (Vol. 105)
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The Anglo-Indian Theme
(summary)
In the following review, Mander praises Naipaul's descriptive powers, but notes that An Area of Darkness is similar to other novels that explore British influence in colonial India.
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The Novelist V. S. Naipaul Talks about His Work to Ronald Bryden
(summary)
In the following interview, Ronald Bryden explores V. S. Naipaul's reflections on his literary work, emphasizing Naipaul's belief in the necessity of writing rooted in cultural authenticity and the challenges posed by fractured societies, leading him to blend fiction with journalism to convey his unique perspective.
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Lost Worlds, Lost Heroes
(summary)
In the following review, DeMott calls Guerillas 'continuously interesting,' but argues that its protagonist lacks 'substance,' due more to changes in the socio-political climate of the day than Naipaul's skills as a writer.
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The Novelist as Dictator
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Spurling argues that Naipaul does not permit his readers to form their own impressions of his characters and their surroundings; instead, he imposes his outlook 'dictatorially.'
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The Paradox of Freedom: V. S. Naipaul's In a Free State
(summary)
In the following essay, Boxill discusses the paradoxical nature of freedom and the symbolic 'prisons' in Naipaul's In a Free State.
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The Ironic Approach: The Novels of V. S. Naipaul
(summary)
In the following essay, Rohlehr discusses Naipaul's ironic approach toward and "sympathetic rejection" of Trinidadian culture.
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V. S. Naipaul: A Wager on the Triumph of Darkness
(summary)
In the following essay, Brown praises Naipaul's skill as a novelist, focusing on his "dark" vision of the world.
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V. S. vs. The Rest
(summary)
In the following interview, James Atlas offers insight into V. S. Naipaul's writing process, his struggles with identity and belonging, and his complex relationship with England, portraying him as a writer marked by a sense of alienation and a quest for self-definition through his literary journey, as exemplified in "The Enigma of Arrival."
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A Novel for Our Time: V. S. Naipaul's Guerrillas
(summary)
In the following essay, Parrinder addresses a number of themes in Guerrillas, including the notion of the 'Noble Robber' and sexual violation.
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Signs of Life
(summary)
In the following review, Buruma praises Naipaul for his depiction of India and its people as they struggle to achieve what Naipaul calls 'universal civilization.'
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The Root of Rootlessness
(summary)
In the following review, Eder argues that by 'refusing to conceal or temper his own crabby vision,' Naipaul achieves a 'unique authenticity' in his A Way in the World.
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Con Men and Conquerors
(summary)
In the following review, Staples praises A Way in the World, calling it a "probing meditation on the relationships among personal, national and world histories."
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Naipaul's Written World
(summary)
In the following essay, Pritchard argues that Naipaul's "decline as a novelist" can be attributed to his "banishment" of irony and humor in his later works.
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The Anglo-Indian Theme
(summary)
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Naipaul, V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) (Vol. 13)
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Robert D. Hamner
(summary)
In the following essay, Robert D. Hamner examines the evolution of V. S. Naipaul's narrative techniques and structural organization across his novels, highlighting the consistent development and experimentation with narrative voice, character focus, and plot construction from early works like The Mystic Masseur to later ones such as The Mimic Men and A House for Mr Biswas.
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John Ayre
(summary)
In the following essay, John Ayre critiques V. S. Naipaul's India: A Wounded Civilization for its focus on abstract ideas over people, arguing that it offers a disillusioned view of India's romanticized past and challenges Western misconceptions with a stark portrayal of contemporary problems.
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Un Pé Pourrie
(summary)
In the following essay, John Updike examines V. S. Naipaul's depiction of post-colonial Africa as seen in "A Bend in the River," praising its exploratory nature and masterful fictional landscape while acknowledging Naipaul's often bleak portrayal of Third World regions as plagued by stagnation and darkness.
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Robert D. Hamner
(summary)
- Naipaul, V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) (Vol. 9)
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Naipaul, V. S. (Vol. 199)
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The Garden Trampled: or, the Liquidation of African Culture in V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River
(summary)
In the following essay, Wise contrasts the views of Chinua Achebe and Naipaul on the subject of modern African history and culture as evinced in Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Naipaul's A Bend in the River.
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A Second Look at the Faithful
(summary)
In the following review, Gilmour considers Beyond Belief to be a sequel to Among the Believers, contending that Naipaul's approach in Beyond Belief is “patient, fastidious and skeptical, generally compassionate to individuals if not to the societies to which they belong.”
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V. S. Naipaul: The Art of Fiction CLIV
(summary)
In the following interview, Naipaul discusses his literary journey and thematic focus, emphasizing how his diverse background and experiences have shaped his writing, the challenges of reconciling personal history with larger global themes, and the evolution of his narrative style, particularly in works like A Way in the World.
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The Politics and Poetics of Diaspora in V. S. Naipaul's A Way in the World
(summary)
In the following essay, Jones offers a stylistic analysis of A Way in the World, maintaining that its structural tension can be resolved “in a heavier scrutiny of the politics of diaspora bound with a fraught diasporic poetics.”
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The House of Mr. Naipaul
(summary)
In the following review, Mishra explores the major thematic concerns of the family letters collected in Between Father and Son and provides a biographical account of Naipaul's early life, particularly his relationship with his father.
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Naipaul Writes Home
(summary)
In the following review, Shankar commends Between Father and Son for the insight it provides into Naipaul's personality and family life and asserts that the collection “is a revelation when it comes to the narrative possibilities in the compilation of letters.”
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Father Knows Best
(summary)
In the following review, Epstein explores Naipaul's relationship with his father as found in the letters collected in Between Father and Son.
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Claiming the Burden: Naipaul's Africa
(summary)
In the following essay, Samantrai examines the function of imperialistic discourse in A Bend in the River and describes the novel as “a fictional documentation of the political shift from colonial to postcolonial Africa.”
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The Native Returns: Conrad and Orientalism in V. S. Naipaul's An Area of Darkness
(summary)
In the following essay, Idris investigates the influence of Joseph Conrad on An Area of Darkness.
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Anger and the Alchemy of Literary Method in V. S. Naipaul's Political Fiction: The Case of The Mimic Men
(summary)
In the following essay, Greenberg considers the impact of Naipaul's racial attitudes and pessimism on his novel The Mimic Men.
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Review of Between Father and Son
(summary)
In the following review, King finds what he calls unexpected details included in the letters of Between Father and Son. The letters gathered in Between Father and Son are mostly between V. S. Naipaul, his older sister Kamla, and their father Seepersad Naipaul. The mother seldom writes and seems an outsider to their interests in writing, culture, and becoming independent from her wealthy but insulting family. A major theme of the letters is the conflict between devoting oneself to a future career, especially as a writer, and helping others in the family gain an education.
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Saving Vidia
(summary)
In the following review, Wood applauds Half a Life, finding it intelligent and complex.
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An Innocent, but Not at Home
(summary)
In the following review, Marnham describes Half a Life as a novel but also as a topical book on contemporary political and cultural issues.
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A Perfectly Targeted Prize
(summary)
In the following review, Hensher assesses Naipaul's literary achievements and deems him “a supremely deserving Nobel laureate.”
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The Riddle of Identity: Preserving the Idea of Freedom Despite the Weight of History
(summary)
In the following review, Siegel judges Half a Life as the artistic interpretation of Naipaul's preoccupation, in his nonfiction, with the reality of poverty.
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Review of Half a Life
(summary)
In the following positive review, Yardley delineates the key thematic concerns of Half a Life. V. S. Naipaul marks his rise to Nobel laureate, however accidentally, with a strange new novel that is at once of a piece with and apart from most of his previous work. On the one hand it is a continuation of his preoccupation with the innumerable questions raised by cultural and racial identity; on the other hand its spare, melancholy, elusive, somewhat heavily ironic tone contrasts with the more animated quality of his best fiction, and the graphic sex with which its final sections are filled is a stark departure from his almost priggish treatment of the subject previously.
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Review of Half a Life
(summary)
In the following review, Mehta offers a mixed assessment of Half a Life, focusing on the protagonist Willie Chandran, an Indian immigrant who immerses himself in bohemian-immigrant life in London, drawing parallels between his life and that of his creator, V. S. Naipaul.
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The Razor's Edge
(summary)
In the following review, Coetzee provides a thematic and stylistic analysis of Half a Life.
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Naipaul's Nobel
(summary)
In the following essay, Thieme finds it surprising that Naipaul was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Naipaul's ‘B. Wordsworth.’
(summary)
In the following essay, Beck asserts that the short story “B. Wordsworth” shows how Naipaul dealt with having a British literary canon thrust upon him and his reactions to it, and his development of a calypso-influenced, Trinidadian form.
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Sir Vidia and the Prize
(summary)
In the following essay, Morris discusses the mixed reaction to Naipaul's 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature and traces the author's attitude toward Trinidad in his writings.
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Travelling Through Colonialism and Postcolonialism: V. S. Naipaul's A Way in the World
(summary)
In the following essay, Leavis praises A Way in the World, judging the work as a culmination of genres and interests, and as a combination of travel narrative, biography, ideas about oppression and the oppressed, and historical research.
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V. S. Naipaul's Pursuit of Happiness
(summary)
In the following essay, Packer traces Naipaul's literary development.
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Civilization and V. S. Naipaul
(summary)
In the following essay, Bawer offers an overview of Naipaul's literary oeuvre and judges the author an ardent and eloquent defender of civilization.
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Review of Half a Life
(summary)
In the following review, King provides a favorable assessment of Half a Life. V. S. Naipaul's new novel, Half a Life, tells of someone like the author but his opposite, someone who does not know what he wants to do, who wastes his opportunities, who drifts, never takes root, never builds a house, never becomes morally or financially independent. He does many of the things Naipaul has done, such as go to England for further education, write for the BBC, write a book of short stories, travel to Africa, but each parallel ends with flight revealing lack of purpose. Having fled from Africa, Willie Chandran laments, “I am forty-one, in middle life … I have risked nothing. And now the best part of my life is over”; at the conclusion, before leaving for Berlin, Willie tells his wife, “The best part of my life has gone, and I done nothing.”
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A Mind So Fine: The Contradictions of V. S. Naipaul
(summary)
In the following review, Eagleton places Naipaul within the context of other English literary emigrés and contends that the essays and speeches collected in Literary Occasions chart “the extraordinary spiral of displacements that make up Naipaul's career.”
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The Garden Trampled: or, the Liquidation of African Culture in V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River
(summary)
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Naipaul, V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) (Vol. 18)
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A Novel of Hope and Fear in the Third World
(summary)
In the following essay, Charles R. Larson argues that V. S. Naipaul's recent novels, particularly A Bend in the River, effectively encapsulate themes of displacement and a lack of hope within alien geographies, with a nuanced portrayal of Third World stagnation and a convincing narrative voice that reflects the author's personal heritage.
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News from Nowhere
(summary)
In the following essay, Benny Green argues that V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River explores themes of political upheaval and existential homelessness through its portrayal of displaced characters navigating a post-imperial Africa, using simple yet profound language to convey the complexities of cultural dislocation.
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V. S. Naipaul and the Uses of Literacy
(summary)
In the following essay, Patrick Parrinder argues that V. S. Naipaul's novels, particularly The Mystic Masseur and A House for Mr Biswas, explore the ambitions and disillusionments of literary dreamers in post-colonial Trinidad, examining the role of literary culture as a means of self-assertion and social transition.
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Looking Backward: 'A Bend in the River'
(summary)
In the following essay, Edith Milton examines how Naipaul's A Bend in the River portrays exile and the human condition through themes of circularity, loss, and despair, highlighting the perpetual conflict between change and stasis as a central and universal predicament.
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After Conrad
(summary)
In the following essay, Christopher Hope examines how V. S. Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River parallels and diverges from Conrad's Heart of Darkness, highlighting Naipaul's exploration of post-colonial Africa’s complexities, including the erosion of European, Arab, and Asian influences, and the persistence of tyranny and insecurity.
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'The Return of Eva Perón'
(summary)
In the following essay, John Leonard examines V. S. Naipaul's critique of "half-made societies" in "The Return of Eva Perón," highlighting Naipaul's view of these societies as parasitic and consumed by myth, and paralleling Naipaul's insights with those of Joseph Conrad regarding the destructive legacy of imperialism.
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'The Return of Eva Peron'
(summary)
In the following essay, Jack Beatty argues that V. S. Naipaul's writings, particularly in "The Return of Eva Peron," offer a critical exploration of the impact of Western imperialism and moral mimicry in post-colonial societies through a lens that merges historical and personalist perspectives, despite sometimes lacking in the representation of life's complexities.
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From the Third World
(summary)
In the following essay, Jane Kramer examines V. S. Naipaul's complex literary persona, suggesting his work is imbued with a "bitter clarity" that critiques both colonial and post-colonial societies, ultimately portraying a world marked by nihilism and moral voids, with his journalism providing a necessary distancing from his perceived demons.
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Bitter Dispatches from the Third World
(summary)
In the following essay, Edward W. Said critiques V. S. Naipaul's portrayal of post-colonial societies as devoid of authenticity and vitality, highlighting Naipaul's ironic detachment and sarcastic observations, and questioning the impact of Western influence on Naipaul's perspective and literary development.
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Without Regret or Hope
(summary)
In the following essay, Joan Didion examines V. S. Naipaul's narrative style and thematic concerns, arguing that his work is often mischaracterized as nihilistic when, in fact, it offers a romantic view of reality marked by a tension between physical immediacy and ideological constructions, reflecting a complex engagement with postcolonial identity and historical change.
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A Novel of Hope and Fear in the Third World
(summary)
- Naipaul, V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) (Vol. 4)
- Naipaul, V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) (Vol. 7)
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Naipaul, V. S.
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Potpourri of the Antilles
(summary)
In the following review, Plant dismisses the title story of A Flag on the Island as another example of Naipaul's defeatist and predictably pessimistic attitude about the effects of colonialism, but also offers warm praise for the dialogue and humor in the other short stories included.
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Darkest Naipaulia
(summary)
In the following review, Calder praises the two short stories of In a Free State for their ability to convey the fears and isolation of emigrants living in cultures destroyed by imperialism, but criticizes the book as a whole for being too pessimistic to recognize any positive signs for hope in the African continent.
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In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
(summary)
In the following review of In a Free State, Larson criticizes the short stories and novella for their pessimistic themes of emigrants suffering from prejudice as they lead lives in foreign lands.
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To Be Without Roots
(summary)
In the following review of In a Free State, Theroux calls the work a “masterpiece in the fiction of rootlessness” and compares the transplanted characters of the short stories to those in Naipaul's other works.
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Displaced Person
(summary)
In the following review of In a Free State, Kazin calls the book one of Naipaul's best and illustrates how the short stories within the work give voice to Naipaul's major themes of displacement, exile, and homelessness.
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Naipaul's Third World: A Not so Free State
(summary)
In the following essay, Thieme compares In a Free State to Naipaul's earlier work and concludes that this later effort shows the author moving beyond themes of the wretchedness of Third World colonial life to reflect his personal ability to free himself from the shackles of a colonial mentality.
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Naipaul's Painters and Their Pictures
(summary)
In the following essay, Winser traces Naipaul's use of painters and visual art in his first seven novels and two collections of short stories.
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The Short Fiction
(summary)
In the following excerpt from his full-length book on Naipaul's fiction, Rao analyzes the plots and themes of several of the short stories in A Flag on the Island and argues that the stories are held together by the “unifying metaphor of island life.”
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Humour and Sympathy: Miguel Street and other stories
(summary)
In the following excerpt from her full-length study of Naipaul's work, Nightingale shows how themes of postcolonial futility and wasted lives in Miguel Street become more explicit and pessimistic in the short stories that make up A Flag on the Island.
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Tradition, Miguel Street, and Other Stories: The First Period of Naipaul's Development
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Cudjoe positions Naipaul in tradition of the Caribbean short story and traces the development of themes in his short fiction.
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The Comic Island and Shipwrecked
(summary)
In the following excerpts from his full-length treatment of Naipaul's work, Kelly penetrates the humor of the short stories in Miguel Street and A Flag on the Island to discover the author's emerging disparagement of life and human possibility in places like Trinidad.
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Carnival
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Weiss argues that Miguel Street is told in two voices—that of a child who loves the spirit and people of Trinidad and that of an adult who needs to explain why he had to escape the futility and imprisonment of life in Port of Spain.
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Abroad
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Mustafa analyzes Naipaul's mingling of short fiction and nonfiction in In a Free State and concludes that with the work Naipaul reaches “an existentialist disassociation from the testimony he writes.”
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Potpourri of the Antilles
(summary)
- Further Reading