V.S. Naipaul

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, better known as V. S. Naipaul, (Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, August 17, 1932-London, England, August 11, 2018) was a British-Trinidadian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.

Biography

The son of immigrants from North India, his grandparents had left the Gangetic plains in the late 19th century and upon arrival in Trinidad they had integrated into the small community of Brahmins, the highest-ranking caste in Hinduism, on the island of Trinidad and Tobago.

His father, Seepersad Naipaul, who had literary ambitions, got a job as a journalist in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, whereupon he enrolled at Queen's Royal College.

Vidia won one of four scholarships offered by the colonial government, and at age 18 he moved to England to study at Oxford University, where he received a BA in art in 1953.

There he met, in February 1952, Patricia Hale, who was a member of the university's Dramatic Society. Naipaul got a job with the BBC at the end of 1954, and in January of the following year, when they were 22 years old, Vidia and Patricia were married.

Although he lived with Patricia for 41 years, until her death from cancer in 1996, the marriage was not a happy one in many ways, with Naipaul going so far as to say that his cruelty could have killed her. prostitute services in London, and later had a long relationship with Margaret Gooding.

His wife, since Patricia's death, was Nadira Khannum Alvi, a journalist for a decade for the Pakistani daily The Nation, 30 years his junior, a Muslim, twice divorced and with two children: Maliha and Nadir.

Died on August 11, 2018, aged 85.

Literary style

His work is characterized by the analysis of the colonial world. In particular, it usually alludes to the alienated existence of those who are subjected to or involved in an environment that is not their own.

The Swedish Academy awarded him an award for his recovery of suppressed histories, including the indigenous people of Trinidad, the Hindu population of the island who forget the language of their ancestors, the Muslims of Trinidad who do not know the origin of their surname, the toponymy of Chaguanas, etc.

In summary, oblivion and cultural loss on the one hand and alienation on the other are the themes dealt with by Naipaul. His work includes novels, essays and travel books.

Works

The Mystic Healer (The Mystic Masseur) is his first novel. It is a satire about the social ascent of someone from the rural and Hindu environment of Trinidad.

Los simuladores (The Mimic Men) is a novel that analyzes a kind of "colonial schizophrenia" (This according to the author's own words in the conference given upon receiving the Nobel Prize).

The Middle Passage is a travel book through Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Martinique and Jamaica, in which the author shows the poverty, flatness, alienation and racism that he notices in the populations of those countries. The central idea of the story is that all these countries are made up of settlers who were deprived of their original culture, which was not replaced by another of original dyes, but was replaced by a copy of other models (the American in Trinidad, French in Martinique) or by a desire to replace the culture of the colonizer, which is shown through the language (abandonment of Dutch for an Anglo-African dialect in Suriname) or by a utopian return to Africa (it is the case of Rastafarianism in Jamaica).

An Area of Darkness recounts his first trip to India. The discouragement expressed by Naipaul and his analysis of the figure of Gandhi is interesting in this book.

In The loss of El Dorado (The Loss of El Dorado), the author studies the evolution of the island of Trinidad since its discovery, indigenous life, passing for the English conquest. In an original literary genre, which takes elements from the novel and from the historical essay -carried out according to the documents in the British Library-, Naipaul develops his usual theme, cultural estrangement, in a story of great literary and historical interest.

Guerrilleros (Guerrillas) analyzes the Western bad conscience regarding third world countries, the inadequacy and false objectives of cooperation projects with developing countries and In particular, it demystifies postcolonial political processes.

A Bend in the River (A Bend in the River) is a novel in which the protagonist is a Muslim, of Indian race, born in a country located on the eastern coast of Africa. He describes the way of life among Muslims in East Africa, and the main character's move to a country in the center of the continent, where he settles as a merchant. The country is not identified, but it is made known that it was colonized by Belgium, and that there are racial struggles within it. Possibly a reference to the Congo is being made. The book is written against the background of the rise of a new president, which at first seems to bring order and development to the country, and then culminates in totalitarian and archaic debauchery. The development of the characters is very characteristic of the author, many of whom are uprooted characters who struggle to form an identity, which many times they do not achieve but end up acting with a character that is not their own. The novel constantly plays with this idea, resorting to different symbolisms. The pessimism about Africa that shines through the entire work is very remarkable.

Among the Believers (Among the Believers) is a chronicle of the trip he made in 1979 through Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia. Naipaul chose these countries because they are foreign lands to the birth of Islam, which he considers inherent in Arab culture. According to Naipaul, they would be countries that have renounced their own culture to adopt the religion of Muhammad. The book's thesis is that the renaissance of Islamism as a policy would not have been due to an internal force, but would have consisted of a reaction to what he calls "universal civilization". Naipaul considered that these countries on the one hand were fighting materialistic and modern culture, while on the other hand they were dependent on it. Thus, it would be about societies that seek to take advantage of modern technology, but that reject the culture that has allowed it to be developed. Naipaul here develops ideas that are linked to a famous conference of his ("Our Universal Civilization"), and that would cement his reputation for being anti-Muslim and contemptuous of developing countries. It is interesting to note that Naipaul was in Tehran when the hostage-taking took place at the US embassy, an event that is referred to in this book.

A Turn in the South is a chronicle that covers the salient aspects of life in the southern United States. The stories in the book refer to the decline of the aristocratic families of the South, the rise of the black population, the different southern religions, describes the so-called 'rednecks', visits Graceland to offer his impressions about Elvis Presley's mansion, gives us an idea of the culture generated around the cultivation of tobacco, among other stories. All of them try to make a synthesis that encompasses the South as a cultural unit, from its origins to the present. Paradoxically, it makes no description of Oxford or deals with the work of the great southern writer William Faulkner, but the entire book tacitly refers to it, since it deals with the same themes in prose that Faulkner narrated through fiction. This is an excellent book for understanding the atmosphere surrounding Faulkner's work, resembling a (high-quality) sociological analysis of the Oxford-born author's work.

A Way in the World (A Way in the World) is a collection of essays and short novels about the island of Trinidad, its history, its people and the cultural tear as common denominators.

India (India, a Million Mutinies Now) is a collection of stories and reports made by Naipaul on his trip to India in 1990. looks at the modernization of the Indian subcontinent and its contrast with traditional society. The pariahs, the Sikhs, the Tamils, the Brahmins, the film industry, the Shias, are described in their own environments through the personal stories of different members of these communities.

List of works

Fiction

• The mystical healer (1957)
• The Suffrage of Elvira (1958)
• Miguel Street (1959)
• A house for Mr. Biswas (1961)
• Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion (1963)
• A Flag on the Island (1967)
• Simulators (1967)
• In a Free State (1971)
• Guerrillas (1975)
• A lap in the river (1979)
• Finding the Centre (1984)
• The riddle of the arrival (1987)
• A road in the world (1994)
• Half life (2001)
• Magic seeds (2004)

Nonfiction

• The Middle Passage: Impressions of Five Societies - British, French and Dutch in the West Indies and South America (1962)
• An Area of Darkness (1964)
• The Loss of El Dorado (1969)
• The Overcrowded Barracoon and Other Articles (1972)
• India (1977)
• To Congo Diary (1980)
• The Return of Eva Perón and Other Chronicles (1980)
• Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (1981) (Among believers, De Bolsillo, Barcelona, 2011)
• A Turn in the South (1989)
• Read and write (2000)