Return to exile : nation and identity in The Mimic Men, Surfacing and Ignorance

Abstract

This M.A thesis studies three contemporary novels, V.S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men, Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Milan Kundera's Ignorance with regard to their interrogation of nation and identity through their thematization of return and home. It explores, with particular focus on the journeys of their protagonists away from and back to their home countries due to colonization, invasion and oppression, whether home can be defined by national boundaries and if a real return home is possible. All these novels revolve around the failure of their protagonists to identify with their home countries after they return there, which triggers a process of self-questioning to find out where they belong, a process which, however, culminates in their choice of exile, refusing to belong any particular territory.