A House For Mr Biswas My Paper Contribution
....A House for Mr. Biswas as an autobiographical novel....
In this paper my intention is to explore the autobiographical elements in A House for Mr. Biswas.Naipaul’s autobiographical narration in A House for Mr. Biswas is a “private epic” and is to be taken as a literal version of his life.This novel is the fictional version of experiences Naipaul has recalled in later autobiographical surveys which he describes as “very much father’s book...written out of his journalism and stories,out of his knowledge...” Mr. Biswas as Naipaul’s autobiographical revealation appears not only as an over-reaction to a specific concern,but more fundamentally as the “fear of extinction”,the annihilation of the self that his father continued to endure and transmitted to his son.In reconstructing his father’s life,he has traced the inception of his own process of self-creation on different planes in both tone and intention,theme and breadth,alienation and identity. The novel presents a three-fold meaning in its autobiographical technique;firstly,how Seepersad’s encircled life in extended Hindu clan eventually dwarfed his ambitions to be a wrier;secondly,how Naipaul himself through a “cathartic moment” attained through his father’s life internally feared a similar fate;and finally,Mr. Biswas’s being colonized under conditions which are specific to his setting and background.This novel appers to be a double autobiography in which Mr. Biswas is modelled on Seepersad Naipaul’s life and career,and Anand,his son, whose life and career run parallel to V.S.Naipaul’s.His sketching of Anand is not much different from his creator as his “fictitious progeny”.In the novel,the portrayal of Anand as a ‘separation of man from writer” and a most poignant recreation,evokes reations to his father-longing,attachment,fear,rage and reconciliation on individual and historical past.Naipaul says that A House for Mr. Biswas was “created out of what I saw and felt as a child”. Mr.
In this paper my intention is to explore the autobiographical elements in A House for Mr. Biswas.Naipaul’s autobiographical narration in A House for Mr. Biswas is a “private epic” and is to be taken as a literal version of his life.This novel is the fictional version of experiences Naipaul has recalled in later autobiographical surveys which he describes as “very much father’s book...written out of his journalism and stories,out of his knowledge...” Mr. Biswas as Naipaul’s autobiographical revealation appears not only as an over-reaction to a specific concern,but more fundamentally as the “fear of extinction”,the annihilation of the self that his father continued to endure and transmitted to his son.In reconstructing his father’s life,he has traced the inception of his own process of self-creation on different planes in both tone and intention,theme and breadth,alienation and identity. The novel presents a three-fold meaning in its autobiographical technique;firstly,how Seepersad’s encircled life in extended Hindu clan eventually dwarfed his ambitions to be a wrier;secondly,how Naipaul himself through a “cathartic moment” attained through his father’s life internally feared a similar fate;and finally,Mr. Biswas’s being colonized under conditions which are specific to his setting and background.This novel appers to be a double autobiography in which Mr. Biswas is modelled on Seepersad Naipaul’s life and career,and Anand,his son, whose life and career run parallel to V.S.Naipaul’s.His sketching of Anand is not much different from his creator as his “fictitious progeny”.In the novel,the portrayal of Anand as a ‘separation of man from writer” and a most poignant recreation,evokes reations to his father-longing,attachment,fear,rage and reconciliation on individual and historical past.Naipaul says that A House for Mr. Biswas was “created out of what I saw and felt as a child”. Mr.