Title: A Study of the “Trace” of Things and Deconstruction of Subjectivity in A House for Mr. Biswas

Abstract: In A House for Mr. Biswas, Mr. Biswas, the protagonist, attaches great importance to the relationship between material and cultural identity, and he deems things (especially houses) as spiritual sustenance and material carrier to construct the identity of Indian immigrants. For him, subjectivity is the origin that he has been pursuing for during his entire life, and things are considered as tools to reach that origin. However, the things Mr. Biswas has spent all his life searching for and has momentarily owned are merely scattering “traces”. The dynamic of the “trace” of a thing causes the uncertainty of its own meaning, and the “trace” constantly appears and effaces itself, so the eternal and stable subjectivity pursued by Mr. Biswas is deconstructed by the effacement of the “trace”. In addition, the “trace” as a substitute has led to endless “différance” of meaning, so the firm system led by the existence of things that Mr. Biswas kept seeking for does not exist. In fact, his pursuit of the “trace” only confirms that his subjectivity is slipping on the chain of significations. The “traces” pursued by Mr. Biswas are infinite points that constitute a line, which is infinitely close to but can never reach the center of the ultimate meaning, and neither can the origin nor the end of the “trace” be located, directing this novel to nihilism eventually.

Keywords: A House for Mr. Biswas, things, “trace”, subjectivity, deconstruction

Author: Xiujuan Lan, Ph. D. Candidate, School of Foreign Language Studies, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.