V. S. Naipaul's Journeys
From Periphery to Center
by Sanjay Krishnan
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Pub Date Feb 04 2020 | Archive Date May 12 2020
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Description
In V. S. Naipaul’s Journeys, Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul’s writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul’s life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul’s work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul’s political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illustrating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges.
Advance Praise
"Drawing heavily on archival materials made available only recently, V. S. Naipaul: From Periphery to Center offers a defense and rereading of Naipaul by substantially reframing the objectives of his writing. Naipaul's work is unlike that of other postcolonial writers, contends Krishnan, in avoiding both easy position taking and the consolations of identity. Accessing Naipaul’s “ways of seeing,” Krishnan gives us a new, self-subverting Naipaul for the twenty-first century."
—Timothy Bewes, author of The Event of Postcolonial Shame
"In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys, Sanjay Krishnan sees Naipaul's “obsessions” as not only diagnosing, but also performing, the “deranging” effects of empire. Krishnan argues that Naipaul should not be understood as a reactionary critic of postcolonial cultures, but as someone who reported on them from the inside. Krishnan’s conclusions will be debated for a while to come, but his rigorous engagement with Naipaul’s oeuvre will reanimate the author for the next generation of critics."
—Suvir Kaul, author of Of Gardens and Graves: Kashmir, Poetry, Politics Shame
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780231193320 |
| PRICE | $35.00 (USD) |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Suzanne B, Reviewer
If you’re familiar with postcolonial literature, then Trinidadian born/British writer VS Naipaul should ring a bell. Throughout his career, Naipaul has divided a lot of critics: some love him; others love to hate him. However, Sanjay Krishnan decides to look beyond the man and critically examine his writing instead. VS Naipaul: Journeys offers an in-depth look at the context in which Naipaul wrote throughout each era of his writing career as well as how his writing evolved over the decades. Krishnan divides the Nobel Prize winner’s oeuvre into three parts: 1955-1961, 1962-1980, and 1981-2010. This is a great read for anyone who has read Naipaul’s work and would like to understand where his ideas come from.
Piotr F, Reviewer
Sanjay Krishnan never set out to destroy what some refer to as the Naipaul myth, and we should be grateful for that. Instead of engaging in punditry, he close-reads Naipaul's works, fiction and nonfiction alike, to show how they belong to a specific time and place. Naipaul himself, of course, is an amalgam of various political and cultural forces, and it only makes sense that his work would be both uneven and controversial. As Krishnan argues, while Naipaul's "observations and substantive claims about the postcolonial world are of great interest, it is crucial to pay attention to the way that such claims emerge from Naipaul's reflections on his own historically disorienting formation." This excellent study doesn't make Naipaul less controversial as an author or person, but it stands as proof that he never ceased to try to understand how he came to be who he was.
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