A Study Of Trauma In V.S.naipaul’s In A Free State

V.S.Naipaul is one of the most representative diaspora writers of contemporary British immigrant literature.He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001,and is known as the “Three Giants of Immigrants” in British literature together with Kazuo Ishiguro and Salman Rushdie.In a Free State(1971)is Naipaul’s first work on Africa in its unconventional form,for which he was awarded the Booker Prize.The novel is composed of five different stories connected by a unified theme,namely the “free state”of modern man in post-colonial times.At present,critics mainly study the work from the perspectives of postcolonial theory,thematic thoughts,space,existentialism,etc.,but rarely interpret it from the trauma perspective.Starting from the theory of trauma,this thesis attempts to analyze the traumatic manifestations and its traceability from both individual and collective dimensions,and finally reveals how traumatized individuals and groups endeavor to carry out trauma work-through,searching for the effective recipe for curing trauma.This thesis consists of five sections.The introduction concisely describes Naipaul’s life and his work In a Free State.It gives a comprehensive and brief literature review of the current research situation of In a Free State abroad and in China.Then it introduces the significance of this thesis,briefly describes the development and main connotations of trauma theory.The main body is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses traumatic manifestations and roots regrading to three protagonists in the novel from the perspective of the individual,deeply analyzing symptoms under the dual influence of alienation mechanism and the exilic temper of times.The second chapter focuses on the collective cultural trauma.The three disparate groups in collection respectively encounter mental sufferings as well as estrangement from the outside,when impacted by historical,cultural and social factors.After laying the foundation of analysis in the previous two chapters,the third chapter seeks to investigate potential methods for addressing trauma and the importance of trauma writing.Supported by the above research,the conclusion points out that Naipaul pays close attention to individual psychological trauma and group cultural trauma against the background of modern capitalist society and post-colonial era,and those can only be worked through by confronting,narrating and reconstructing.On the basis of his own multiple cultural identity and diasporic experiences,Naipaul concerns human’s psychological state and the typical features of age and society through his “Modern Sensibility” writing style,which forms his distinctive writing of trauma.Besides,the examination of trauma work-through unfolds his humanitarian care together with the sense of responsibility and mission as a writer,and that is the unique creating thoughts of Naipaul named “Close Distance”.