Cultural Ambivalence In Naipaul’s Miguel Street And A Flag On The Island: A Postcolonial Study
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Date
2017-08
Authors
Esfidvajani, Akram Mokhtari
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This dissertation deals with two volumes of V.S. Naipaul’s short stories, Miguel Street and Flag on the Island. They are primarily analyzed according to Derrida’s theory of deconstruction and Bhabha’s dual post-colonial concepts of colonial ambivalence and hybridity, in addition to Said’s notion of cultural stereotyping and Petersen and Rutherford’s idea of double colonisation. The thesis first identifies and deconstructs the respective cultural ambivalence of the colonised and the coloniser, and then proposes how their state of ambivalence helps Naipaul’s characters represent themselves as independent personalities within a colonial society. Besides, the present study deconstructs the double-colonisation constraint imposed upon women who are treated as inferior subjects by a patriarchal ideology through which colonialism is also constructed. Therefore, the thesis tries to fill the gap through the deconstruction of the ambivalent spaces of the colonised characters. It also argues that Naipaul’s characters are not merely confused colonial stereotypes. Rather, they make an attempt, at least, to achieve knowledge and self-recognition. The significance of this study is that it offers a different, radical idea of Naipaul’s fiction, by deconstructing his characters and revealing that they are non-stereotypical individuals who either achieve a degree of liberation or potentially present themselves to do so. The thesis also questions the hierarchical binary thinking in which one kind of person is privileged over another, in terms of behaviour; the subject who is discriminated against avoids reification of the rigid binary concepts of man and woman, or dominator and dominated. On the other hand, Homi K. Bhabha proposes that one’s identity emerges from an ambivalent space in which there is no hierarchical position between cultures. This space produces the same theoretical concepts which call into question the hierarchical oppositions in a one-sided discourse built only on the beliefs of the coloniser. Ultimately, by exposing mimicry, hybridity, and ambivalence, and by deconstructing hierarchical binary oppositions, this research reveals how ambivalence helps Naipaul’s characters define themselves within the colonial society. Many of these characters go beyond the stereotypical characteristics attributed to them, while there are some who have begun to identify themselves more closely with the cultural values of the dominator, as a result of the cross-cultural encounter. A further significant finding of this study is the characters’ realization of the necessity for the colonised to rebuild an identity which in itself comprises different cultures. Although Naipaul’s characters experience racial oppression and Oriental misrepresentation under colonial rule, their search for freedom in the newly-formed postcolonial society describes the crucial process of obtaining cultural recognition and autonomy.
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Keywords
Cultural ambivalence in naipaul’s miguel street , and a flag on the island