Ayaz on Modernity, Mimicry, and Moksha: A Postcolonial Study of R. K. Narayan's The Guide and V. S. Naipaul's A House For Mr. Biswas

Amreen Ayaz, University of Aberdeen, has published Modernity, Mimicry, and Moksha: A Postcolonial Study of R. K. Narayan's The Guide and V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas. Here is the abstract.

This research examined the concepts of modernity, mimicry, and moksha, their applications in postcolonial literature, and their altered meanings in the modern world. It studied modernity through various dimensions like colonialism, Nanni’s exploration of colonisation through time and religion, intergenerational variations in its impact, the redefined meaning of success through tools like life and career planning, and the makings of a modern man. The concept of mimicry was analysed through the works of scholars like Bhabha, Uytanlet, Harold, Chakrabarti, Alvarez, Phukan, Mandal, Sultana, and others. It looked at themes like the need for mimicry, its dual aspects, intra-national mimicry, masculinised mimicry, and gaps in postcolonial studies. The work also delved into the idea of mimicry by drawing on theories from other disciplines, like Hegel’s dialectics, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, evolutionary biology, performance theory, systems theory, and cultural hegemony theory, while drawing historical examples from India’s freedom struggle. The research aimed to explore the identity conflict in the present youth of the erstwhile colonial nations, which are experiencing massive changes in culture through globalisation and the fast-paced import of ideas. It endeavoured to bring out a synthesis between conflicting values of tradition and modernity, and highlight the possibility of evolved ways of living that the selected works of postcolonial writers were attempting to convey to their readers. For the purpose, the traditional framework of moksha was woven in with the literary theories of modernity and mimicry, explaining its meaning through religion, philosophy and socio-cultural perspectives. Manu’s Dharma Shastra was focused upon to trace the process of achievement of moksha; its modernised version was explored through the different paths taken by the characters of Naipaul and Narayan, ultimately answering the question of how to achieve moksha in a hybridised environment. Through the journeys of Raju and Mohun Biswas, the conclusion was reached that in the modern world, moksha is found not in a return to tradition, but in the courage to embrace one’s true identity amidst change.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Looking at Postcolonial Law and Literature

Dustin A. Zacks has published A Bend in the Law & Literature: Greed, Anarchy and Dictatorship in the African Worlds of V.S. Naipaul and Ngugi Wa Thiong'o in volume 34 of the North Illinois University Law Review (2013). Here is the abstract.

This Article examines two giants of colonial and postcolonial fiction involving African states that heretofore have been largely ignored by the law and literature movement. Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul and East Africa’s foremost novelist Ngugi Wa Thiongo’o are worth studying for their vivid descriptions of the challenges postcolonial societies face – challenges such as corruption and authoritarianism that are usually addressed, at least in legal scholarship, in the context of international or human rights law, rather than in the context of narrative fiction.

The Article also critiques traditional academic literary criticism for its disparate treatment of the two authors. Naipaul is attacked as being a snobbish Westerner, whose gloomy pronouncements about the state of the law and the prospect of reform in African states arise from his supposedly racialist opinions. Thiong’o, by contrast, has been heralded for giving an authentic, non-Western view of Kenya’s independence and post-independence struggles.

The Article should serve as a reappraisal of the previous criticism of Naipaul’s work in light of the precision of his dire descriptions of corrupt African officialdom, which compares favorably with Thiong’o’s supposedly more authentic voice.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.