DIASPORIC TRANSFORMATIONS

The book is an exploration of V.S. Naipaul’s maturing diasporic experiences and sensibility shaping his works throughout his career. Starting his journey with an inconsequential land which he considers as merely ‘a dot on the map of the world’, he locates himself in the centre of imperial power. His passionate journeys around the globe enabled him to internalize the enigma of a nomad and to come out with remarkable outpourings on diasporic issues. In a theoretical framework provided by Homi K. Bhabha, his works portray the essential ambivalence, mimicry and in-betweenness marking the lives of displaced émigrés who realize the half-ness of their lives due to the loss of their native cultural identities. His novels are replete with the metaphors of homelessness and represent the divided selves of the shipwrecked diaspora who have got trapped into the elusive realities of the alien territory.

Here, the book traces the shifting paradigms of diasporic ambivalence in the novels of V.S. Naipaul who happens to be considered a literary sojourner dispassionately handling all the intricacies of displacement. However, the concepts of globalization, de-territorialization and multiculturalism might have trivialized the diasporic debates but the present study attempts to resuscitate and sustain the charm of the subject by exploring the uncharted territories of Nobel Laureate’s fictional representation.

Sanjiv Kumar is on the Faculty of English, Central University of Haryana, Jant-Pali, Mahendergarh. His major areas of interest are Dalit Literature, Diaspora Studies, Indian Writing in English and Multidisciplinary Approach to Culture Studies and has an impressive list of publications in these areas.