Travel, Gaze And Identity Construction In V.S. Naipaul's The Enigma Of Arrival

This thesis explores Naipaul's semi-autobiographical novel The Enigma of Arrival with the aim of disclosing the representation of a migrant writer's identity construction from the perspective of tourist gaze.To examine how travel and gaze contribute to the formation of identity for a migrant,this thesis focuses on the protagonist's travel experiences,both physically and mentally,and discovers that to achieve his identity construction he mainly undergoes three stages from subjectivity awakened,adoption of hybridity,and spiritual journey back to Indian roots.The thesis consists of five parts.Chapter One briefly introduces the writer and his motives in creating the work.Chapter Two centers on how the narrator'self-consciousness is gradually awakened by gaze at the tropical island which is transformed by colonial taste of the picturesque.Through gaze during travel,the migrant writer is able to probe into the colonial desire behind the colonizers' conception of Trinidad owning the characteristics of picturesque beauty and tropical sublime.The act of gaze also contributes to his awakening of subjectivity now that he is aware of the traps of assimilation of the colonial aesthetics of the picturesque.Chapter Three continues to explore how gaze,through recollection after the journeys,stimulates the narrator to face up to his Trinidadian colonial past,demystify Englishness by making contrasts between urban vistas and natural landscapes in Trinidad and England,and accelerates his identity-seeking toward hybridity.Hisdoubt on Englishness results from his second dislocation due to his double consciousness.His knowledge of the binary between leisure and labor cultivates his subjectivity.This new knowledge also helps him embrace a hybrid identity,for he acknowledges that his own appearance in the manor makes untenable the homogeneity of Englishness.Chapter Four is concerned with the narrator's reflections upon existential crisis in the journey of self-expatriation.His tension with his Hindu cultural heritage is the other factor that results in his identity crisis.Reviewing his identity and existential crisis under the imperial gaze turns the narrator's self-expatriation into a spiritual journey to compromise with his Indian roots.Chapter Five concludes that travel and gaze help the narrator accomplish his identity construction by offering him opportunities to come to terms with his Trinidadian colonial past and Indian cultural heritage.Hence,he is able to embrace a hybrid identity which negotiates the cultural differences.In turn,hybridization also benefits his writing career by providing him with multicultural stances.