The Diasporized Women

In the late half of the 20th century, post-colonialism, together with other theories such as post-structuralism, post-modernism and feminism, has been prevalent in the Western academies and considered as a major critical discourse. Contemporary diasporic writers, such as Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Timothy Mo, attempt to describe the different experiences of unfamiliar cultures and values, exploring the sense of loss, loneliness that diasporas have felt, probing into the crisis of cultural identity that diasporas have suffered from. They have involuntarily showed much concern for the source and effects of cultural or racial conflicts. In A House for Mr. Biswas, successfully applying the theme of bicultural identity, the British Indian-born novelist Naipaul, explores the crisis of cultural identity the Trinidadian Indians have encountered.This thesis attempts to explore the diasporized Trinidadian Indian female experiences by means of launching an attempt at a postcolonial feminist study of Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas. It firstly explores the literary tradition and context of diasporic writing in the 20th century, Naipaul's awareness of diasporic writing and his A House for Mr. Biswas as the presentation of the diasporic writing. Then the thesis probes into the dilemma encountered by three important diasporized Trinidadian Indian female characters from three different generations Mrs. Tulsi, her daughter Shama and Shama's daughter Savi. Finally, it points out Naipaul's diaspora complex and the features of the diasporized Trinidadian Indian women of three different generations. On top of the crisis of cultural identity, those diasporized women are confronted with sexism, thus their lives are much more intolerable than those diasporized men. However, the three female characters have lived remarkably different lives marked with different features. To conclude, in the eyes of Naipaul, it is impossible for those diasporized Trinidadian Indians to dispel their rootlessness while education seems to be the only means to emancipate themselves especially those diasporized women from the shackles of Hinduism and it is education that has ensured their independence and self-sufficiency.