Abstract:
In this study, the notions of homelessness and unhomeliness are studied in 2 novels by Naipaul: Half a Life (2001) and Magic Seeds (2004). Naipaul has been viewed by many postcolonial critics as an imperially complicit writer, for his controversial views of places and societies, particularly his disdain for non-Western societies. This study examines whether the imperatives of the postcolonial context, where boundaries and idealistic vision of place are unsettled, have influenced Naipaul’s view of places and ways of belonging to them. It is argued that his recent novels accept that the reality of homelessness renders the quest for home futile and approves of cultural exchange and hybridity as possible ways of belonging. However, the 2 novels show possibility as only tenable in certain Western societies (like England) and refuses to accept the possibility of hybridity and cultural exchange in postcolonial societies.
Machine summary:
It is argued that his recent novels accept that the reality of homelessness renders the quest for home futile and approves of cultural exchange and hybridity as possible ways of belonging.
At the start of the new millennium and after decades of a writing career so intricately bound up with the ideas of place and the question of belonging, Naipaul depicts the familiar theme of the quest for home in Half a Life (2001) and Magic Seeds (2004), which is a sequel to the former novel.
I will discuss the two novels in relation to their questioning the idea of home and reinforcing the idea that home is nowhere for profoundly unsettled postcolonial individuals; however, I will argue they approve of the possibility of hybridity as a new way of belonging in certain societies.
Such an outlook seems familiar in Naipaul’s work; yet, what might be seen as new in these recent novels are, first, their addressing the possibility of establishing a society based on dynamic cultural exchange and, second, their accepting the idea that the reality of homelessness renders the desire for home futile.
Naipaul’s Half a Life and Magic Seeds endorse the notion of hybridity as a new way through which an individual can relate to the world, but the efficiency of hybridity is conditioned by the imperatives of location.
Rather, Magic Seeds suggests that living through hybrid cultural exchange would be inevitable in the postcolonial era when the idea of home and belonging is no longer tenable.