From the Mimic Men by V.S. Naipaul (Dissertation Review Sample)

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Literature Review
Introduction
Postcolonial is a term describing the period when the colonies attained their liberation from the European rule. Colonialism is a word that reflects the impacts the issue had on the cultures and the communities that are used historically after the World War II mainly referring to the post-independence time. Research studies have indicated that the majority of the population that exists in the current world has had their lives modeled or influenced by the colonial experience in one way or another. Despite the many political changes, most countries attained their independence and were no longer serving the colonial power. There though appeared many problems and complications and these countries are yet to define their culture and identity. The search for the identity and the social items of the countries that attained freedom was found to be a factor of the change of the culture that resulted in the disagreement between the cultures of the colonizers. The primary focus of this study will be based on the identity crisis and post-colonialism.
From the Mimic Men by V.S. Naipaul
The research suggests that the issue about identity was the most contradicting subject in the period after the colonization and literature. It can as well be considered the most important factor because its issues existed in all the postcolonial societies. Due to the situations, of the postcolonial time, and the hostile events that the independent countries faced, searching for their identity saturated the surface. The issue of identity was not clear or fixed because many people might have held back leading to the identity crisis. Many people believe that identity becomes an issue when it is connected with problems or when it develops a factor that is considered to be fixed and powerful and is then displaced by the experience of “mistrust and uncertainty.” During the “World War II,” the decolonization and liberation of the countries that were serving the colonialists provoked the move in the recreation of the social and personal identities. Other arguments suggest that there is a historical truth in the declaration of the identity as the mobilized political power that was initiated at that time that then raised the efforts against the colonial rule in the world that was free from Europeans (Naipaul, 18).
In the Oxford dictionary, identity is describes as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” In the colonial understanding, it is defined as “a complex idea that appears to be difficult to define.” Identifying a state or an individual in the perception of colonialism and postcolonial period can be associated with the other meaning that they recognize themselves with the presence of others. In the book, the concept of “otherness” is believed to be an element that is applied in the recognition of identity in the postcolonial period displaying a dual defining both identity and difference. The twofold is so in that every other is created dialectically and it includes the interpretation of the colonizing tradition even when it fails to acknowledge its ability to define. Also, the two-way relation of the otherness that is it formed an identity displacement and paved a hierarchical event at the time. The national identity composed in the post-colonial countries "is believed to be never fixed and is very changing according to environment and culture, because of transfer and sovereignty that leads to confusion in identity." Naipaul also points out that because the identity isn’t a fixed and strong perception, it comes as an open space between figures of intersecting disclosures. The effects of the colonial regime were much other than there was many consequences of the colonialism in different areas and identity was experienced in various shapes and forms. Collective individual identity is as well found to differ both physically and psychologically.
SÌ£aÌ„lihÌ£, Tayeb, and Denys Johnson-Davies. Season of Migration to the North. London: Heinemann, 1999. Print.
The literatures points that the postcolonial view and perceptions came when many countries had attained or were fighting for their freedom and liberation. The main issue that lay round the issue was race, gender, identity and culture among others. The criticism of post-colonialism as is argued by history and literature review have been seen taking many aims. The key function is to re-examining colonialism from the understanding of the colony-states and recognizing the political and cultural identities. The interpretation of post-colonialism is believed to be the result of multiculturalism and decolonization as well as it configures a historic transition from revolutionary nationalism in the third world countries. In the post-colonialism theory, another controversial case is that if identity and culture. In the current world, where there are rapid cases of immigration, hybrid nations and foreign constitutions with multiple cultural diversities, there raised the issue of identity. Researchers Jones and Donal in their narrative were seen arguing that the idea about identity holds an enormous volume of psychological issues that have been met in various studies and from the many pints of views (Tayeb & Johnson-Davies, 70).
Tayeb is as well seen to claim that the origin of the issue of identity developed into major theme in both literature and the entire life. It also becomes the main subject because of the effects of the colonial rule as it is argued by a researcher Pieterse. He composes an argument that after the WWII when all decolonization was underway, and the imperial identities were displaced from being the main issue the question of other became a critical and popular theme.
From: Hinterholzer, Stefan. Acculturation in Sam Selvon's "the Lonely Londoners". MuÌ€nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2007. Internet resource.
Literature gives significant ways that the post-colonial periods are displayed. They as well argue that the daily realities that are experienced by the people who were colonized have come to be encoded powerfully and so influential. The criticism and theorists of the postcolonial era viewed the issue of identity as the main discussion. Most of them viewed it as a major theme in the works that were written in the postcolonial time that has been known to the experienced identity problem. The novelists exposed the conditions of identity crisis that were that transpired in the postcolonial era. Their novels came out boldly, and they never escaped the issues of Diasporas and exile...