V.S. Naipaul was one of the most influential and controversial writers of the twentieth century. His writings on colonialism and its aftermath, on migration and landscape, and on cultural loss and creativity, were both admired and criticised by a wide global audience. But what of his relationship to the region of his birth? Born in Trinidad, of Indian ancestry, and spending his professional life in England, Naipaul could be dismissive of his Caribbean background. He presented himself as a citizen of nowhere, or else, of the globalized, postcolonial world. However, this obscures his intense competition, fierce disagreements and close collaboration with other Caribbean intellectuals, both as a schoolchild in colonial Trinidad, and as an internationally celebrated author. V.S. Naipaul, Caribbean Writing, and Caribbean Thought looks again at Naipaul's relationship with his birthplace. It shows that that the decolonising Caribbean was the crucible in which Naipaul's style and outlook were formed. Moreover, understanding Naipaul's place in the history of the region's politics and letters sheds new light on the work of celebrated contemporaries, Derek Walcott and Kamau Brathwaite, George Lamming and Maryse Condè, Elsa Goveia and Eric Williams, Sylvia Wynter and C.L.R. James. Literary criticism, intellectual biography, and an essay in the history of ideas, this book offers a new account of Caribbean thought in the decades after independence. It reveals a literary culture of creative vibrancy, in an era of unprecedented change.

The book is about V. S. Naipaul who was born in Trinidad in 1932. At the age of 18, Naipaul left Trinidad on a scholarship to study literature at Oxford. He never returned to live in Trinidad. His first book was published in 1956, and by the time Trinidad achieved political independence in 1962, he had published four books and was firmly established as a writer in England. By the time Trinidad became a republic in 1976, Naipaul had written 13 books and had travelled through much of the postcolonial world. This book highlights how Trinidad and Naipaul were bound in a love-hate relationship where Naipaul continued to pass Trinidad off as a cynical island where “nothing was created” while Trinidad had its share by laying back a claim on him and his writing. It is generally perceived that Naipaul shunned his place of birth as he called his birth in Trinidad a “mistake,” Trinidad an “unimportant, uncreative, cynical” place and the Caribbean as the “Third World’s Third World.” His refusal to acknowledge Trinidad in his initial response to receiving the Nobel Prize added insult to injury. Yet, he was deeply bound to the island of Trinidad and his roots in the Indo-Trinidadian community. This book makes Naipaul’s connection to Trinidad more than evident and as such adds to the present body of knowledge.

V.S. Naipaul Is One Of The Most Celebrated Names In English Fiction Today. In His Fiction, Naipaul Presents A Subtle And Sensitive Account Of The Poignant Experiences Of The Colonized People. On The Other Hand, His Commitment To Truth Makes Him Conscious And Critical Of The Shortcomings Of Traditional Cultures As Well. This, Added To His Pessimist Vision Of The World, Makes Him A Highly Controversial Writer. The Present Study Gives A Comprehensive Account Of The Major Works Of Naipaul By Enquiring Into The Postcolonial Themes Of Alienation, Mimicry, Search For An Authentic Selfhood, Power And Freedom That Emerge From Their Reading. The Study Provides Fresh Insights By Raising Questions About Naipaul S Treatment Of Women And African Characters In His Fiction.

A critical examination of the famous South Asian writer Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1999), a notorious Anglophile and defender of empire. Ian Almond analyses Chaudhuri from the perspectives of Islam, the archive, melancholy and empire, exploring the evolution of his thought and the consequences this has for our understanding of 'cosmopolitan' intellectuals.

Transcultural Anglophone Studies (TAS) engages with the cultural production of speakers of World English in any part of the former British Empire, and the migrational diasporas resulting thereof. Anglophone texts - in print or other media - have had a tremendous impact despite their relatively `belated' entry to the cultural field. Since TAS forms a vast, heteronomous research area, this Introduction is a first guide for students and researchers. In providing analytical tools for engaging with these exceptional texts, it situates them in the larger context of globalization and neocolonialism.