Author: Lillian Feder
Publisher: Indialog Publications
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 269
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187981091
Description
This intellectual biography and a revealing psychological portrait of the artist describes Naipaul's methods for discovering the truth about himself and the world he explores.
REVIEWS:
It is hard to be fait to V S Naipaul’s books: they challenge readers in contentiousness. A neutral or disinterested reading seems pointless. Most critics of Naipaul think they must hand down a political verdict. Lillian Feder never forgets that the novels are works of art or they are nothing. She engages with Naipaul’s political essays and examines their relation to the corresponding fictions. Immensely helpful work, this. I hope that readers will learn from her patience and from the quality and force of her intelligence.
—Denis Donoghue, University Professor and Henry James Chair of English
Contents
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
CHAPTER 2
Autobiography
Becoming a Writer
"The Traveler’s I"
CHAPTER 3
Trave; Narratives, History, and Journalism
The Bonds of the Past
Fantasies, Lies, and "Political Myths"
Continuity and change: An idea of Nationhood
Islam --- 1979; 1995
CHAPTER 4
Fiction
Comic and Tragic Realism
Outsiders Everywhere
Violence, Selfhood, and the Ambiguities of Truth
The Author in History
CHAPTER 5
Afterword
Chronology of works by V S Naipaul
Index
About the Author