THE POSTCOLONIAL CITY AS A DYSTOPIAN WASTELAND: V. S. NAIPAUL’S GUERRILLAS
THE POSTCOLONIAL CITY AS A DYSTOPIAN WASTELAND: V. S. NAIPAUL’S GUERRILLAS

Summary/Abstract: The present article examines the dystopian quality of Naipaul’srepresentation of the postcolonial space in his novel Guerrillas. Naipaul’s staple useof the imagery of dereliction and desolation, paradigmatic of his portrayal of thedecolonised outposts of Empire, is hypertrophied here so as to envision a dystopiancity in a postcolonial ‘wasteland’. The political and ideological edge of the novel isimplied in the oppressive atmosphere of the place, as perceived and experienced bythe displaced and repressed individuals who fall victim to its disorder. The studyhighlights the way in which the counterpoint dynamic of landscape and mindscaperepresentations nuances Naipaul’s acerbic critique of the millennaristicapocalypticism and messianism of the Black Power movements, as well as of thewhite left-wingers embroiled in Third World distress. As the apocalyptic spatialimagery and symbolism seep into the characters’ vision of a world redeemable onlyby fire and violence, the novel’s Wasteland metaphor is tinged with the thrill of apostcolonial Black Gothicism, conveying Naipaul’s haunting “vision of a worldundoing itself”.

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