THE JOURNEY THAT BROKE MY LIFE IN TWO
THE JOURNEY THAT BROKE MY LIFE IN TWO

Summary/Abstract: This paper is an approach to Naipaul’s Indian trilogy, a close reading of the three texts, in which Naipaul critically evaluates India’s history, culture and politics from the position of an outsider whose understanding of the country is informed by his triple heritage: Indian, Trinidadian and British. My paper also posits the thesis that Naipaul’s writings may be seen as ‘readerly’ due to their references to characters involved in “scenes of reading”. Three main themes have been detected in Naipaul’s works: (1) colonialism and (2) influence and (3) the tension between Naipaul’s atheism and a sense of religious identity as a Hindu. In terms of structure, this paper is divided into two main parts that are distinct but closely connected. The first part is a main theoretical one presenting the main theoretical notions which inform Naipaul’s writing. It deals with Naipaul’s position in the context of post-colonial theory, his Indian travel books, his relation with religion etc. The second part of my paper is the analytical one covering each volume of the Indian trilogy.

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