Abstract:
Though Naipaul’s geo-spatial dislocation from periphery to centre generates an optical distance that helps
observe postcolonial reality objectively, he simultaneously attaches to the reality that he initially left behind.
This can be termed ‘ex-timated’ fictionalization, where the inner is intimately ex-centred with outer. This
sense rises from Naipaul’s territorial dislocation that does not indicate a decisive ontological detachment from
the postcolonial reality that he is alienated with. His de-territorialization is unable to fully embrace the new
metropolitan reality and forget the former completely, as shown mainly in fictional characters i.e. Salim (A
Bend in the River ) and Ralph Singh (The Mimic Men). This review considers The Mimic Mento explore this
postcolonial situation, even though the symptom is visible even in his other novels, where major characters
are positioned between tradition and modernity that emerged from post-colonial reality. While accepting the
fact that his repetitive literary revisits to postcolonial Asia and Africa could provide the objective reality
within the failed project of decolonization, a Zizekian analysis suggests that Naipaul could not effectively
elevate himself from his Heidaggerian ‘out-of-joint’ situation and exploit his ‘homelessness’ to discover a better
reality. Instead, he is ex-timately confined to an ‘ex-static’ (or ex-centric) postcolonial situation that leaves
him in the deadlock of ‘de-personalized objective narrations’ and ‘situational consciousness’ of Third World
Literature. On the basis of the said extimated alienation of Naipaul’s existential literary endeavor, this review
suggests that to understand the postcolonial situation better, Zizek’s idea of extimacy is of substantial significance.
