Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 55

V. S. NAIPAUL'S A BEND IN THE RIVER

of life what he can and that he will be rewarded only roughly in
proportion to his efforts. But the most important aspect of his
epiphany is the recognition that in a state such as Britain, despite
vestiges of privilege and bias, he can live as a free man, choosing
his path in life without fear of intimidation. "I was going to surrender my manhood to nobody," he proudly proclaims (151). That
declaration, which sounds very much like Naipaul's assessment
of his own hard-won independence following graduation from
Oxford and his fierce struggle to establish himself as a writer,
depends on the existence of opportunities that are themselves
conditioned by the perpetuation of civilized norms.
Through much of the novel, Salim is oblivious to the need for
civilization of this sort. So too is Raymond, the resident Africanist
who has bartered his academic reputation for a comfortable and
seemingly undemanding role as adviser to the country's ruler.
Unlike Indra, Raymond has not chosen to make his way within the
universal civilization: he has elected to serve tyranny instead, even
if he does so under the illusion that he is assisting in a struggle for
cultural liberation. During Naipaul's nine months of teaching at
Makerere University in Uganda, he observed several expatriate
academics similar to Raymond: intellectuals who had bought into
the vision of a postindependence African renaissance despite the
reality of corruption and impoverishment all around them. At
Makerere, Naipaul came to believe "that many of his white colleagues . . . were playing out private fantasies of their own, and
would be undone."8 Like Raymond in Bend, these academics had
little actual contact with the people among whom they were
living. Their reading of events was controlled and distorted by
an ideological script. By contrast, Naipaul traveled extensively
during his time in central Africa and studied local conditions in
55



Modern Age - Winter 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Winter 2016

Contents
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Cover1
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Cover2
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Contents
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 2
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 3
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 4
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 5
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 6
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 7
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 8
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 9
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 10
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 11
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 12
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 13
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 14
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 15
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 16
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 17
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 18
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 19
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 20
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 21
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 22
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 23
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 24
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 25
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 26
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 27
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 28
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 29
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 30
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 31
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 32
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 33
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 34
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 35
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 36
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 37
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 38
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 39
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 40
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 41
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 42
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 43
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 44
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 45
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 46
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 47
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 48
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 49
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 50
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 51
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 52
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 53
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 54
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 55
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 56
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 57
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 58
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 59
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 60
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 61
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 62
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 63
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 64
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 65
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 66
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 67
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 68
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 69
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 70
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 71
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 72
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 73
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 74
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 75
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 76
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 77
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 78
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 79
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 80
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 81
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 82
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 83
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 84
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 85
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 86
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 87
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 88
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 89
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 90
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 91
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 92
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 93
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 94
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 95
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 96
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 97
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 98
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 99
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 100
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 101
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 102
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 103
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 104
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 105
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 106
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 107
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 108
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 109
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 110
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 111
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 112
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 113
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 114
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 115
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 116
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 117
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 118
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 119
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 120
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 121
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 122
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 123
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 124
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 125
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 126
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 127
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 128
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 129
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 130
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 131
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 132
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 133
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 134
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 135
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 136
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 137
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 138
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 139
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 140
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 141
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 142
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 143
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 144
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 145
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 146
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 147
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 148
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 149
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 150
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 151
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 152
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 153
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 154
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 155
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 156
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 157
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 158
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 159
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 160
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Cover3
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2018winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2015fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2014fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2014summer
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com