Cosmopolitanism In V.S.naipaul's Half A Life And Magic Seeds

The remarkable Nobel laureate V.S.Naipaul with particular cultural identity has been a ravishing object in postcolonial literature,immigration literature,and British literature.The perspectives of his works are mostly from postcolonialism,religious studies,feminism,racism,and diaspora identity.However,with the deepening of globalization,the cosmopolitan concept that is compatible with the phenomenon of globalization has attracted the attention of scholars after a long period of silence.Theorists of various countries have defined “cosmopolitanism” from different perspectives of disciplines.Furthermore,literary critics gradually developed“cosmopolitanism” into literary studies.The cosmopolitan thoughts in Naipaul's works could make him a cosmopolitan writer.As Naipaul's cognition of cosmopolitanism is continually changing,this thesis aims to combine the content criticism and form criticism in the novel by examining the narrative and plot from the primary elements by close reading,exploring the cosmopolitan ideas in the last two consecutive novels Half a Life and Magic Seeds.The first part of this thesis gives a brief introduction to Naipaul and the two novels Half a Life and Magic Seeds.At the same time,it briefly introduces the literary review of the two novels from three aspects: First,the topics of exile and identity in these novels;Second,research on Half a Life and Magic Seeds from the perspective of spatial narrative;third,interpretation of Half a Life and Magic Seeds from narrative skills such as the narrative perspectives,symbols,and metaphors.The first chapter starts with analyzing the social environment in which cosmopolitanism sprouts in India and explores the external factors of cosmopolitanism described by Naipaul.In the nineteenth century,various political organizations and uprisings occurred in India.The initial Indian revolution in 1857 was caused by the British Army serving in the British East India Company and the Kingdom of India'srevolt against Britain.After Britain's insurgency was settled,India was divided into British India and the princely state,which is a vassal state ruled by Maharajah who inherits the feudal system before the occupation and continues to be inherited by the original monarch or his family,but controlled by the British colonial government and loyal to the British king.While India's independence movement was in full swing,the protagonist's life was peaceful.As a superior caste in India,the great-grandfather,who was a Brahmin,fled to the temple because of famine and wrote a letter to help the people to survive.When it came to Willie's grandfather,he began to work in the royal palace of Maharajah.In the Gandhian passive resistance,Willie's father was forced to marry a low-caste woman and gave birth to Willie and Sarojini.Within the princely state where the caste system was still rigorous,Willie and Sarogini were maltreated because of their identities,so they had to go to missionary schools for education.Since then,under the influence of colonial education,the protagonist developed dual perspectives on social contradictions triggered by the caste system in India.Under such circumstances,the protagonist gradually formed a nebulous cosmopolitanism.The second chapter describes the two extreme ideological tendencies encountered in the process of forming his concept of cosmopolitanism.The first is to abandon all old ideas and customs and become a completely “rootless” cosmopolitan.The specific manifestation is that when he entered the land of Africa with a new identity,his change of marriage concept and his almost maniac obsession with sex were almost completely lost in this new continent.The second is the intense oppression of cosmopolitanism by extreme nationalism.When the protagonist returned to India to participate in the national movement,extreme nationalism prevailed,so the individual values and options were deprived,and Willie was forced to submit to extreme national activities.The third chapter briefly analyzes how Naipaul uses the shift of narrative perspective,cosmopolitan irony,silence to express and develop the cosmopolitanism of the characters,and analyzes their cosmopolitanisms and limitations with the main characters Willie and Sarojini as examples.As the protagonist in the novel,Willie repeatedly shuttled between different cultures,gradually forming the ability to embrace differences and respect cultural diversity.As a representative of lower-level women in India,Sarojini gradually developed a sense of cosmopolitanism due to her internationalmarriage.The conclusion part sums up that in the two novels--Half a Life and The Magic Seeds,Naipaul delineates an Indian family of the mixed marriage of a Brahmin and a Dalit Woman,whose fate between history and illusion in the rise and fall before and after the collapse of the Indian colonial system.There are a lot of questions about the relations between individual and individual,and society in these two novels.By means of the characters in the story,Naipaul reveals his thoughts on cosmopolitanism.The main characters in Half a Life and The Magic Seeds reflect their different cosmopolitanisms to a certain extent and have their limitations under the influence of factors such as history and environment.Naipaul guides readers to experience the process of cosmopolitanism of the main characters and the contradictions that they encountered in the process employing the transformation of narrative perspective,cosmopolitan irony,silence,and other ways.It also shows the author's inclusive attitude towards a variety of cosmopolitanism,presenting his calm and restrained reflection on cosmopolitanism.