Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies

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Naipaul's Kashmir Sojourn in An Area of Darkness


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1 Department of English, North-Eastern Hill, University, Tura Campus, Meghalaya, India
     

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An Area of Darkness is the first of V.S. Naipaul's trilogy on India. In 1962, India was no longer a British Colony. Almost two decades had passed since Independence;it was the era of Nehru, the ideals of Gandhi, an independent nation no longer at its infancy. It was also the land of Naipaul's ancestors, forced to leave due to poverty and impoverishment. To Naipaul, India was both familiar and strange, and unlike his travels to other erstwhile colonies of the British Empire, his journey to India was far more personal. The second section of the book is a vivid and a cohesive account of his visit to Kashmir. It recounts events and incidents, of people some of whom the author formed short personal relationships with. The narrative is one of amusement, grudging affection, and implied brief, albeit welcome discovery of the India he envisioned. The section serves as an interlude from the disillusionment and cynicism that dominates the rest of the narrative.

Keywords

Identity, Antithesis, Denial and Negation, Myth, Disillusionment, Roots, Colonialism, Colonizer, Cross Cultural.
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  • French, Patrick. 2008, The World is What it is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul. London: Picador.

  • Misra, Pankaj ed. 2003, V.S.Naipaul: The Writer and the World. London: Picador, 2002.

  • Mustafa, Fawzia. 1995,Cambridge Studies in African and Caribbean Literature: V. S. Naipaul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Naipaul, V S. 1964. An Area of Darkness. London, Picador.

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  • Naipaul's Kashmir Sojourn in An Area of Darkness

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Authors

Ramona M. Sangma
Department of English, North-Eastern Hill, University, Tura Campus, Meghalaya, India

Abstract


An Area of Darkness is the first of V.S. Naipaul's trilogy on India. In 1962, India was no longer a British Colony. Almost two decades had passed since Independence;it was the era of Nehru, the ideals of Gandhi, an independent nation no longer at its infancy. It was also the land of Naipaul's ancestors, forced to leave due to poverty and impoverishment. To Naipaul, India was both familiar and strange, and unlike his travels to other erstwhile colonies of the British Empire, his journey to India was far more personal. The second section of the book is a vivid and a cohesive account of his visit to Kashmir. It recounts events and incidents, of people some of whom the author formed short personal relationships with. The narrative is one of amusement, grudging affection, and implied brief, albeit welcome discovery of the India he envisioned. The section serves as an interlude from the disillusionment and cynicism that dominates the rest of the narrative.

Keywords


Identity, Antithesis, Denial and Negation, Myth, Disillusionment, Roots, Colonialism, Colonizer, Cross Cultural.

References