Postcolonial Memories: A Study of an Area of Darkness

Abstract

In post-colonial literature many writers have attempted  to assert themselves and also tried to establish their identities in the new world. The literary work of these writers is  subjective and presents different aspects like multiculturalism, ethnicity and national identity. But the notion of single language, old culture and ethnicity has disappeared in modern global literature. The national identity and subjectivity seems to be assimilating because the modern reader can’t identify the writer’s identity just by going through the work of the writer. This has happened because many people migrated to different parts of the world which resulted in fusion of various cultures and ethnicities. In fact, these post-colonial writers were either displaced from their roots or they are the immigrants who had left the homeland. After decolonization, these writers tried to restore their identity and subjectivity through their writings. In this category, I will explore the mind set of Naipaul through his novel. The writer is post-colonial and reflects India’s culture, history and ethnicity in his novels. He has floating memories of the native land and tries ground them to establish his identity. As he is an alienated from the homeland and also removed from the history of the country, this writer searches for the roots and asserts himself .The paper will discuss An Area of Darkness to explore the issues of identity and subjectivity. Post-colonial literature presents the binary opposites of orient and occident, colonized and colonizer, black and white and East and West. Naipaul was displaced from India physically and now tried to find a cultural home in England. He also tried to obtain an English identity through acquisition of language and culture of England. But this didn’t help him to succeed in his mission. Although, he writes in one language, he didn’t have one culture and ethnicity to achieve his motive. As a result he lived a life in the exile world. His writings hang in between the two perspectives, to attach him with the past and to attain future goal. But at the same time he swallows this very past when he wants to float on the mainstream life of the host country. On the other hand Naipaul began his life in exile world and his identity is more complicated. He passes through many cultural shocks to establish his modern identity. He uses fragmentary memories of India to restore his Indian past. In this effort he uses an ambivalent of the two opposites of post-colonial literature. In this paper I will also investigate the reasons which led to the collapse of one language, one culture, and one ethnicity in multicultural post-colonial literature. Finally, I will focus on the concepts of national identity and subjectivity in the above mentioned work of this writer.