'Too Close and Yet Too Far – Naipaul and the (M)otherland’
Résumé
« I am at once too close and too far » said VS Naipaul of his complex relationship with India, thus summing up in one sentence the problems of postcolonial identity, and the contradictions between individual memory and collective memory. This paper attempts to define these terms as applicable to Naipaul, discussing the cultural representations which dominate his work, beginning with the United Kingdom, then the Caribbean, and finally, India.