V. S. Naipaul: The White Traveler Under the Dark Mask (Critical Essay‪)‬

V. S. Naipaul is a firm believer in an overarching universal culture built on progress and rationality. He rcpresents the assimilated and monocular colonial self, attributing the failures of Third World societies he writes about to the inherent backwardness and indignity of its peoples, disregarding cultural specificity and falling into the trap of racist evaluations. This article examines Naipaul's reification of age-old colonial images by concentrating on the synchronic realities of the places he writes about (particularly Africa), thus furthering the West's Africanist discourse with all its ideological and imperialist connotations. **********