奈保尔作为一个典型的移民作家，具有复杂的文化背景。纵观奈保尔的作品，他的创作都基于自身经历，文化身份问题是其文学作品的永恒主题。《幽暗国度》是奈保尔首次拜访印度的真实记录，是其真正意义上第一次面对三种文化的正面撞击，其文化身份危机在此次寻根之旅中达到顶峰。 本文通过对《幽暗国度》的文本解读，剖析奈保尔在特立尼达、英国和印度的不同文化身份。同时回溯奈保尔的文化寻根历程，探求其文化身份危机的根源。奈保尔表现出对特立尼达的鄙视与否定，从而前往伦敦去追寻自己的精神家园。但他作为殖民地人无法完全融入像英国这样的大都市文化，作为印度人又无法完全认同西方价值观，从而表现出较强的孤独感。这使得他选择踏访印度既“祖先之地”再一次寻找他的文化之根。然而面对印度的真实情况，奈保尔表现出惧怕、退缩的心态。因此奈保尔游离于三种文化之外，不能获得任何一方的完全接纳，从而陷入文化身份困境。但是对于奈保尔而言，他的这种混杂文化身份给予了他观察世界更为客观的视角，他的文学创作也得益于此。 探究奈保尔的文化身份危机能帮助人们理解奈保尔作品和其对三个“文化家园”的复杂态度，也能加深公众在全球化背景下对多元文化的接受与认同。

V.S. Naipaul is a typical immigrant writer who has complex cultural backgrounds. Based on his personal experiences, Naipaul published more than thirty literature works which take the pursuit for cultural identity as the theme. An Area of Darkness is the account of his first visit to India, where he firstly encountered the violent impact of three different cultures and his cultural identity crisis hit its peak. Based on a textual interpretation of An Area of Darkness, the dissertation elaborates on Naipaul’s different cultural identities in Trinidad, England and India. Meanwhile, the thesis follows in the footsteps of Naipaul’s search for cultural homeland to explore the cause of his cultural identity crisis. After Naipaul despised and denied Trinidad, he went to London, taking it as his imagined spiritual home. However, he can neither integrate with the western metropolis as a colonist nor completely accept western values as an Indian. The spiritual loneliness encouraged Naipaul to leave for India, the land of his ancestors, to pursue his cultural root. Nevertheless, when the reality of modern India overwhelmed him, he could only recoil in horror. Accordingly, Naipaul was exiled from all the three cultures and his cultural identity crisis appeared. To Naipaul, his hybrid cultural identity provides him with a more objective angle to observe the world and contributes to his literary creation. The study of Naipaul’s cultural identity crisis will help people understand his works and his complex attitudes towards the three “cultural homes”. Meanwhile, it also promotes the public’s identification and acceptance of multiculturalism in the context of globalization.