V.S. Naipaul

This introductory study offers a critical overview of the major works of V. S. Naipaul from 1950 to the present day. Professor Mustafa's main concern is with literary issues, but historical, political and cultural questions are also addressed, with comparative references to other postcolonial works. Paradoxically, a major segment of Naipaul's non-western, pro-decolonisation readership seized on negative elements in his thinking, while Western reaction to his ideas and themes led to set notions about Third-World society. Thus, his work has always been the object of radically divergent views, dependent on the perspective of the reader. In examining this issue, Mustafa introduces general debates about postcolonial literary production and its contemporary interrogation of narrative techniques, language, gender, race, and canon formulation.