The Identity Construction Among "The Other"

Published in 1971, In a Free State won the Booker Prize. It is also one of the masterpieces of V. S. Naipaul, the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in literature. This thesis aims to explore the process during which V. S. Naipaul constructs his Westerner identity among “the Other” world where he is born into. Through the analysis of the dif ferent characters and their ex periences in the book of In a Free State which consists f ive different stories, the development of V. S. Naipaul’s Westerner identity as a writer, and the relationship between his Westerner identity and winning the Booker Prize, this thesis also attempts to rev eal that V. S. Naipau l’s Westerner identity has been vital to the success of this book as a Booker Prize winner. It also helps us explore the Booker Prize-awarding system.This thesis is divided into the following five parts:The introduction is the first part of this thesis. This part examines studies at home and broad about V. S. Naipaul and his work s in postcolonial disc ourse, with greater attentiveness to Naipaul’s identity study and his book In a Free State. In the meanwhile, the introduction lays the theoretical foundati on on which th is paper is b uilt, through a survey and critique of cont emporary theories of Identity Construction, combining with Orientalism.Chapter one analyzes the origin of V. S. Naipaul’s identity issue from “One out of Many” and “Tell Me Who to kill”: in the ea rly life stage of V. S. Naipaul, he is confronted with identification frus tration. “Tell Me Who to kill” annou nces that V. S. Naipaul’s dreamed Westerner identity has been a fantasy. Besides, “One out of Many” is a manifestation of the solitude V. S. Naipaul suffers from in a heterogeneous culture in London.Chapter two discusses the struggle of V. S. Naipaul’s identity construction through the main story “In a Free State” of the book of In a Free State. This chapter attempts to investigate how V. S. Naipaul, in his m iddle life, becom es more confused about his identity: he doesn’t manage to trace his Trinidad identity, India identity, as well a s his third world identity.Looking into the prologue “The Tramp at Piraeus” and the epilogue “The Circus at Luxor”, chapter three explores the two phase s of V. S. Naipaul’s construction of his Westerner identity in litera ture in his la ter life. One is Naipaul’ s nostalgia for the declined West. The other is V. S. Naipaul’s declaration of his Westerner identity through posing entirely against “the Other” world.The last part is Conclusion, which sh eds lights upon the interactive relationship between V. S. Naipaul’s Westerner identity construction and the book’s achievement of the Booker Prize.