| As a postcolonial writer,V.S.Naipaul has produced a prolific volume of writings deeply steeped in the writings of the Third World countries.In particular,his novels about their national development have drawn a lot of critical attention.This thesis looked into the theme of postcolonial disorder as it is dealt with in three of his 1970s novels,namely,In a Free State,Guerrillas and A Bend in the River.Using Frantz Fanon’s theorization about decolonization,it seeks to illustrate the forces that contributed to the postcolonial disorder in postcolonial Africa and Caribbean Islands.According to Fanon,decolonization is the pursuit of independence of former colonies by fighting against the colonizers.In the process,a number of forces in postcolonial countries worked together that contributed to their desolate situation and that it would be essential for Fanon to point out the ways out.Naipaul,in his 1970s novels,in a similar vein deplores and regrets the falling apart of various postcolonial countries,and examines the factors underlying them.This thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter One provides the basic background information of V.S.Naipaul and his works,a literature review,the theoretical framework and the layout of this thesis.Chapter Two offers a study of the novel In a Free State.After the western colonizers have withdrawn their armed forces from the former colonies,they remained an unfree state under colonial influences.Continued racial discrimination,the cultural vestiges of postcolonialism and colonial mentality of the people from the former colonies were still obvious.Chapter Three looks into the crumbling state of Guerrillas,in which the warring guerrillas,the ignorant the masses and the selfish local rich have all intensified the falling apart of the country.Chapter Four examines the corrupted state as depicted in A Bend in the River.In this newly-independent country,instead of democracy and liberty,there were the big man’s dictatorship and the hopeless bureaucracy and the suppression of rebellion,which in the end led to people leaving this country.Chapter Five is the conclusion,in which Naipaul’s three novels are evaluated as a progressive development in the depiction of postcolonial disorder.We witnessed Naipaul’s transition from regional writer of social comedies to a more serious writer of the difficulties of decolonization for the Third World countries.It is also pointed out that these three novels witness the development and deepening of Naipaul’s concern for the future of postcolonial countries. |
