This course will focus on the work of Nobel Prize winning British author V.S. Naipaul. We will trace the history of his development through his novels which serve as his own bildungsroman: A House for Mr. Biswas, The Middle Passage, An Engima of Arrival.

Naipaul’s greatest value today is as the translator and critic of Muslim Culture and the practice of the new Islamic revival. In some ways this course will center around his two major works Among the Believers and Beyond Belief: An Islamic Journey Among the Converted Peoples. We will critique and come to our own conclusions about Naipaul’s representations of Muslims—( Are they fair? Are they unfair? —what in our research shows us that his criticisms may be unfair) and his own journey as a Hindu fundamentalist in India’s Hindu fundamentalism—as in India : A Million Mutinies Now. The core issue is—does Naipaul give us some insight into the development of fundamentalisms—even if his treatment of all fundamentalisms—is acerbic--- in the world today. Here too we will rely on reaction response papers and a longer research paper contextualizing themes in the work in contemporary events.

( Dr. Jussawalla is the author of Conversations with V.S. Naipaul ( University Press of Mississippi—which has been translated into French)