A Survey of Lyrical Elements in Migration Novel: Enigma of Arrival by V. S. Naipaul

This research studies lyrical elements in The Enigma of Arrival (1987) by V. S. Naipaul, Noble prize winner in 2001. The theoretical approach is a combination of the ideas of Cattie Owens Murphy on lyrical novel and the theory of migration literature presented by Soren Frank. This study aims to show the overlap of lyrical thematic and formal elements with features of migration novel used in The Enigma of Arrival and to show how lyrical elements contribute to the expression of migration experience. The findings of this study explain that the following lyrical element overlap with the prominent features of migration literature: subjectivity, non-linear plot, repetition and revision. These elements correspond with certain features of migration novel such as autobiography, narratorial authority, wandering consciousness, multi-dimensionality, and non-linearity. Naipaul has used lyrical features in The Enigma of Arrival to give depth to the represented experience of migration. The lyrical dimension of Naipaul’s novel leads to reasoning and perception through emotions.

Introduction

Thirty-seven years after his colonial migration from Trinidad and Tobago to England, V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018) wrote about immigration experience and its consequent challenges for a migrant in autobiographical The Enigma of Arrival (1987). From the perspective of the theory of migration and migration studies, what makes this work prominent is the decision of migrant narrator, Naipaul, to settle not in London rather in the solitude of a village near Wiltshire and reflecting nature and its beautiful perspective through precise and praise-worthy descriptions. The focus on rural landscape and narrator’s tendency to express his mental state and internal feelings, enforces the lyrical features in The Enigma of Arrival, as a novel of immigration. The novel’s allusions to William Wordsworth, the romantic poet, confirms its lyrical dimension (Hayward, 2002: p. 57). The rise of lyrical novel blurred not only the intellectual and cultural borders  but also border among literary genres. In Lyrical Strategies: The Poetics of the Twentieth Century American Novel (2018), Owens Murphy analyzes the role of the mixture of two classical genres of narrative and lyrical in the formation of lyrical novel and explains its features as literary product of the twentieth century. Theses lyrical features which are observed in the theme and form of immigration novel, provide the reader with a deeper understanding of immigration experience and of the inner world of the migrant character. The significant problem of the present study is to explore the role of lyrical elements in The Enigma of Arrival and to provide answers for the following questions: 1. In what thematic and formal elements the overlap of immigration novel and lyrical novel is situated? And what is their role in the transference of immigration experience? 2. How does the lyrical formal and thematic elements used in The Enigma of Arrival contributes to the expression of immigration experience?

Research Methodology

Drawing on the method of literary text analysis, this study tries to explore the overlaps and conformities of lyrical novel and immigration novel. This research is based on a combination of Owen Murphy’s theory on lyrical novel and Frank Soren’s categorization of stylistic and formal features of immigration novel. First, the lyrical features that show overlap with immigration novel are introduced, then, the role of these lyrical features in The Enigma of Arrival will be discussed.

Discussion

The Overlap of Narrator’s Subjectivity with Novelist’s Biography
As a basic element, subjectivity is a formal element in lyrical novel. In The Enigma of Arrival this feature is depicted through employing narrator’s authority in form and writer’s biography in content. The migrant narrator states his personal emotions, thoughts, and conceptions by using the first person point of view. The narrator, consequently, subjectively describes the narrative action, meaning, and descriptions through possessing the narrative authority.
The Link of Lyrical Experiences with Migratory Themes
The Enigma of Arrival is open to a survey of lyrical elements in migration novel. The migrant narrator tries to show his relation with the alien surrounding based on internal feelings and individual mentality through residing not in the crowded London but in the solitude of a rural landscape. The focus on the subjectivity of the migrant narrator blurs the border between autobiography and narrative, thereby, the lyrical qualities of the novel will be more revealed. The Enigma possesses a fluent, colloquial language that becomes poetic when the narrator is at the peak of his emotions. The reader is the very audience who has gained access to the inner and solitude world of a migrant. The motif of solitude indicates the wandering consciousness that not only brings about stability and certainty but also it causes uncertainty in all of the characters of the novel. Through his migratory mentality, Naipaul is aware of such a transience and that is why he tries to look at his life and the surrounding world accordingly. A nature that is constantly in transit. The lyrical aspect of the novel males it possible to appreciate the experience of migration deeper assist the reader to understand the relevant emotions. In other words, in this novel feeling is a means of comprehension and understanding.
The Conformity of Non-linear Lyrical Novel to Structural Disruption
Instead of following a linear plot, Enigma focuses on the thoughts, observations, feelings, meditations, and descriptions of the narrator in various sections of his life. The descriptive structure of the novel existence of no particular adventure in it, contributes to its structural disruption. Hence, Enigma overlaps the lyrical novel in this regard. The plot of lyrical novels shows the features of imagistic, vertical movement, and contemplative ordering. The plot of Enigma contains these features. The surrounding perspective gradually reflects the inner world of the migrant narrator. This imagistic mode that includes the inner world of the narrator, organizes the plot of Enigma an functions as a unifying force in the novel. In Enigma plot is dependent on space. The vertical arrangement of incidents males it possible to pierce into the inner world of the character. Plot proceeds not a chronological order but an arrangement formed by place. So, the plot shows a seemingly static narration. In reality, action has contemplative nature in Enigma. That is, plot mirrors the transformations of the internal world of the migrant narrator.

Conclusion

This research tried to introduce those stylistic and thematic features of lyrical novel that are significant in stating the experience of migration. As a thematic lyrical element, the subjectivity of the migrant narrator is located in form of autobiography, as a migratory structural element, pave the ground for shedding light on the lyrical world if the migrant. The focus on and the vividness of the image of migrant’s sensations, emotions, and conceptions is enforced in novel of migration through the technique of narratorial authority. The experience of migration can lead to the sense of delivery, the joy of freedom, the happiness of a new life, the opening up of new horizons of understanding. By benefiting from lyrical elements for depicting the world of the migrant, migration novel helps the reader to appreciate the communicated feelings so that feelings turns into a medium of understanding.  In Enigma, Naipaul benefits from lyrical features to express the experience of migration. Plot moves vertically in the novel where space and place are organising elements. The organization of plot in narration is contemplative. The imagistic perspective in Enigma makes the migrant narrator to investigate the experience of migration and its influence on his feeling and understanding through reminiscing disarrayed memories and extending the inner world to the surrounding nature. Hence drawing attention to the reaction of the inner world of the narrator to the changes in the external world. As a feature of lyrical novel, revision through repetition plays an important role in the vertical movement of the plot, because it causes the plot to have a cyclic movement that with every repetition provides an opportunity for revision. That is why Enigma ends where it has begun.

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