Abstract

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Title:: The Voice of the Social Other Speaking Up in the Identity Crisis in Naipaul's Novels

Keywords:: identity dilemma; Other; speaking up; hegemonic discourse; V.S.Naipaul

Abstract:: Deeply influenced by the Western ideology, Naipaul accepts the opposition between the Subject and the Other in the traditional binary and always takes the Western aesthetics as the standard to judge colonized people, establishing the survival dilemma and identity crisis of the social Other in the postcolonial era. Within the human society, Mr. Biswas considers his house as the only medium to fight against hegemonic discourse and constructs his cultural identity at the cost of his life; through a violent struggle, Jimmy dispels the double restraints imposed by both the Western ideological manipulation and Naipaul the writer; Mrs. Tulsi and Mrs. Hereira are the most special ones among all the stereotyped female characters, although their existence cannot gloss over Naipaul's gender bias. However, Naipaul still confirms their agency and creativity, endows them with the capability to speak for themselves and challenge the male hegemony, thus helping them temporarily construct the subjectivity and dispel the passive dilemma of the Other in an active way.