‘Our Little Bastard World’: Food, History, and Identity in the Novels of V.S. Naipaul

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the role of food and eating in V.S. Naipaul’s novels The Mystic Masseur, A House for Mr Biswas, and The Mimic Men, reading them in relation to the work of Sidney Mintz, Kamau Brathwaite, George Lamming, Vijay Mishra, Roberto Schwarz, Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Lizzie Collingham and the discussions of food, eating, and identity in Naipaul’s own non-fictional works The Middle Passage and An Area of Darkness. It also offers a brief overview of the history of Trinidad and of Naipaul’s career and discusses in relation to Naipaul’s writings Samuel Selvon’s novel A Brighter Sun and M.G. Vassanji’s novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. Key topics addressed include creolization, decolonization, and the relationship between literary forms and social conventions.