In a Free State is a post-colonial novel written by Naipaul.“One out of Many”is one of the stories in this novel to explore the freedom of the culturally rootless.The protagonist,Santosh,lives under the collision be...In a Free State is a post-colonial novel written by Naipaul.“One out of Many”is one of the stories in this novel to explore the freedom of the culturally rootless.The protagonist,Santosh,lives under the collision between the Indian culture and American culture.In the“crevice”of two different cultures,he is deeply involved in the tumultuous and painful process of cultural displacement.His behaviors in cultural displacement can be divided into three stages.Firstly,he has experienced a“cultural shock”after his arrival in Washington,D.C.as a new comer.Secondly,after being fully exposed to the host culture and American style,he has experienced assimilation and absorption to be like an American.Finally when he escapes from his employer and chooses his own way of living,he finds that he is not free at all because he is confronted with an awkward cultural dilemma:he can neither return to his past life;nor can he aspire to a better future.The anxiety about the dislocation causes misery for his fate.As a result,he becomes a prisoner in an unfamiliar culture,and his“freedom”can only be a rootless“freedom”.展开更多
Cultural trauma appears when a collectivity of human beings suffers sudden and rapid social change,touching the core of their inner sense.This paper analyzes cultural trauma in the precise time in that novel according...Cultural trauma appears when a collectivity of human beings suffers sudden and rapid social change,touching the core of their inner sense.This paper analyzes cultural trauma in the precise time in that novel according to a classification of the Cultural Trauma theory and presents various strategies to cope with trauma.The whole process of cultural trauma reveals the complicated background then.Confronting ethic problems in displacement,tackling pertinent issues of the globalizing world and struggling with the lingering colonial effects of Britain in India,the novel depicts a special historical scene,implying the ways of living and enlightening today’s loss during the period of inheritance.展开更多
文摘In a Free State is a post-colonial novel written by Naipaul.“One out of Many”is one of the stories in this novel to explore the freedom of the culturally rootless.The protagonist,Santosh,lives under the collision between the Indian culture and American culture.In the“crevice”of two different cultures,he is deeply involved in the tumultuous and painful process of cultural displacement.His behaviors in cultural displacement can be divided into three stages.Firstly,he has experienced a“cultural shock”after his arrival in Washington,D.C.as a new comer.Secondly,after being fully exposed to the host culture and American style,he has experienced assimilation and absorption to be like an American.Finally when he escapes from his employer and chooses his own way of living,he finds that he is not free at all because he is confronted with an awkward cultural dilemma:he can neither return to his past life;nor can he aspire to a better future.The anxiety about the dislocation causes misery for his fate.As a result,he becomes a prisoner in an unfamiliar culture,and his“freedom”can only be a rootless“freedom”.
文摘Cultural trauma appears when a collectivity of human beings suffers sudden and rapid social change,touching the core of their inner sense.This paper analyzes cultural trauma in the precise time in that novel according to a classification of the Cultural Trauma theory and presents various strategies to cope with trauma.The whole process of cultural trauma reveals the complicated background then.Confronting ethic problems in displacement,tackling pertinent issues of the globalizing world and struggling with the lingering colonial effects of Britain in India,the novel depicts a special historical scene,implying the ways of living and enlightening today’s loss during the period of inheritance.
