V.S. Naipaul : no place to call home

Abstract

This study aims to explore how V.S. Naipaul, a rootless wanderer engages with the questions of homelessness, uprootedness, lack of identity and the world after empire in seven key texts: The Enigma of Arrival; A House for Mr Biswas; The Mimic Men; A Bend in the River; Half a Life, Magic Seeds and The Middle Passage. These texts draw on Naipaul’s background - his childhood in the Caribbean island of Trinidad; and what he describes as his ‘second’ childhood in Britain - followed by extensive periods of travel in India and the US. Drawing on postcolonial theory this study refers to the position of the migrant figure in a state of exile with no place to call home.