Name Bhatt Riddhiben D.
Sem 3
Roll No. 15
PG year 2020-2022
PG Enrollment No. 3069206420200004
Paper Name 202 (Indian English Literature – Post -Independence)
Topic Name Cultural,socio-psycho,migrant Identity and magic realism in the works of salman Rushdie
Submitted to Smt. S.B.Gardi Department of English
Cultural,Socio-psycho,Migrant Identity and Magic realism in the works of Salman Rushdie
CONTENTS
Introduction
About Salman Rushdie
Career and Literary works of Rushdie
Magic realism in Rushdie’s Novel
Postcolonial Environments in Rushdie’s Novel
Marginalization of Women in Rushdie’s Novel
Cultural, socio-psycho, migrant Identity and magic realism in the works of Salman Rushdie
Conclusion
Work Cited
Introduction :
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist and essayist. His work, combining magical realism with historical fiction, is primarily concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, with much of his fiction being set on the Indian subcontinent.Here I want to discuss that Cultural,Socio-psycho,Migrant Identity and Magic realism in the works of Salman Rushdie.But first i want to give some intro about Salman Rushdie.
About Salman Rushdie :
There have been very few writers who have been controversy throughout their careers.Yet, Salman Rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by a foreign government. To say Salman Rushdie is a very controversial writer in today’s society would be a gross understatement.
Rushdie was born in 1947 to a middle-class Moslem family in the great city of Bombay, India. His paternal grandfather was an Urdu poet, and his father a Cambridge educated businessman. At the age of fourteen, Rushdie was sent to Rugby School in England where he excelled in his studies. Rushdie went on to continue his studies at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history. After graduating in 1968 he worked for a time with television in Pakistan as an actor with the theatre group at Oval House in Kennington. Then, from 1971 to 1981 Rushdie earned his living by working intermittently as a freelance advertising copywriter for Ogilvy and Mather and Charles Barker.
Rushdie eventually began his literary career in 1975 when he made his debut with Grimus, a sort of fantastical science fiction novel based on the twelfth century Sufi poem “The Conference of Birds”. Grimus however received little fame and Rushdie truly broke into the literary world with his second novel Midnight’s Children, in 1981, which won him the Booker prize and international fame. This novel began his controversial persona as well. The novel is a comic allegory of Indian history that revolves around the life of its narrator, Saleem Sinai, and the one thousand children born after India’s Declaration of Independence.
Rushdie in fact could be considered the ideal poster boy for absolute freedom of the press. It is not that Rushdie prides himself on being rebellious, he simply presents his ideas bluntly and it just so happens that his ideas address extremely volatile topics such as the Islam religion. Rushdie’s philosophy was eloquently put when he wrote, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”Contrary to many great authors, Rushdie did not endure a traumatic childhood, suffer from alcohol addiction, or live with chronic depression. Instead, Rushdie actually had what many would view as a close to perfect upbringing.
Career and Literary works of Rushdie :
Rushdie's first novel, Grimus (1975), a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the subject of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989. The British government put Rushdie under police protection.After Midnight's Children, Rushdie wrote Shame (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan, basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Shame won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book) and was a close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of postcolonial literature are characterised by a style of magic realism and the immigrant outlook that Rushdie is very conscious of as a member of the Kashmiri diaspora. Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua in 1987 called The Jaguar Smile. This book has a political focus and is based on his first-hand experiences and research at the scene of Sandinista political experiments.
Magic realism in Rushdie’s Novel :
Magic realism is a fictional movement connected with a style of writing that incorporates paranormal proceedings into realistic narrative without questioning the implausibility of the events. Magic Realism is a mythical movement connected with a style of writing or performance that incorporates magical or paranormal events into realistic narrative without questioning the questionability of the events. Magic realism is related to, but characteristic from, surrealism, due to its focus on the material object and the actual existence of things in the world, as opposed to the more cerebral, psychological and subconscious reality that the surrealists explored.
Rushdie uses the sequence of events style in magic realism in midnight children with fantasy blended in real life. He uses the narrative technique of magic realism in midnight children to blur the dissimilarity between fantasy and reality. He gives an equal acceptance for the ordinary and the extraordinary. He fuses lyrical and, at times, fantastic writing with an examination of the character of human existence and hidden criticism of society, particularly the cream of the crop. Rushdie can be considered as a writer who plays with the description technique of magic realism. He has earned every right to be called one of the greatest magic realists ever . Midnight’s Children is a fictitious reaction to a series of real life conditions that have been ingeniously fictionalized through insinuations, disguised as well as direct, to the country’s recent and not so recent past. The novel has an impressive sweep covering about Sixty years in the history of the Indian subcontinent. The time from the Jallianwala Bagh incident to April, 1919 to the birth of the protagonist, Saleem, on 15 August, 1947 is portrayed in Book one; the end of the Indo-Pakistan war in September, 1965, is covered in his second book and book three envelops the period up to the end of the Emergency in March, 1977, and includes the Bangladesh war as well . This paper is an attempt to analyse critically the magical realism in the Salman Rushdie’s Novel Midnight’s Children.
Postcolonial Environments in Rushdie’s Novel :
The status of a perfect postcolonial text in Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children is known for its brilliant use of magic realism. The issue of split identity and conflict of immigration is beautifully depicted in his novels. The idea of nation‟ has always been the central concern in his imaginary and non imaginary writing. With magical realism, postcolonial writers are able to challenge realistic narrative and present an alternative reality.
The description framework of Midnight’s Children consists of tale which Saleem Sinai recounts orally to his wifeto-be Padma. This self-referential narrative recalls aboriginal Indian culture with similarly to Arabian Nights as is well recognised from the text of Salam Rushdie’s. In this novel, the mixing of the fantastic and ordinary, which is an aspect of magical realism, seems Indian as the characters involved in contemporary political and social turmoil also has the power of mythic heroes. In the initial phase of the novel, there is a fine passage as an example for this mixing of the real and fantastic. The window of the room to fall and causes on his enemy’s eyes to crack and fallout Mian Abdullah‟s humming without a pause is a delusion like quality due to the mixing of real life with fantastic elements. Sexuality in the novel has been depicted in different tune to align with magical realism as is seen that Amina is having fears of getting a child with a cauliflower in its head instead of brain. We also come across another strange washerwoman Durga whose breasts are colossal and inexhaustible with a torrent of milk. The novel remains a continuous and subtle enquiry of the relations between order, reality and fantasy. The narrator Saleem constantly relates his life to that of his country India. His nativity, growth, development and destruction are related to that of India. The various other characters too seem to stroll through the pages of history, colliding with necessary events in the development of India seemingly by accident. Thus, Saleem's grandfather is on his knees after a mighty sneeze when Brigadier Dyer’s fifty machine-gunners open fire in the Amritsar massacre of 1919; it is Saleem’s father who buys one of Meth world’s villas; Saleem is born at the moment India is; and almost all of the major events of his life, leading finally to the devastation of the midnight’s children and also India at the moment of announcement of Emergency are accidental to developments in the new country. Saleem and India must deal with genealogical perplexity as they
move violently to construct their identities.
Marginalization of Women in Rushdie’s Novel :
Salman Ahmed Rushdie is an eminent postcolonial diasporic writer of Indian origin. He was born in a Muslim family in 1947, the year India became free from the clutches of the colonial rule. The novelist and essayist of international repute, Rushdie, started his writing with the fictional work Grimus (1975). His second novel Midnights’ Children (1981) won the Booker’s Prize. The text focuses on the simultaneous independence and partition of the two nations. He came into thick of controversies because of his novel, The Satanic Verses. (1988). The Muslims considered the novel to be blasphemous. The publication of the novel led to a wide range of demonstrations and protests worldwide. The publication of the text became dearer for him as the Muslim religious leader of Iran issued a fatwa. The fatwa meant that the man who takes away the life of Rushdie would get one billion dollars as a reward. As such, he continues to live under threat to his life till today. Rushdie’s fame as a novelist is immense. More than seven hundred journal articles and numerous book chapters have been published on it. In the text Shame, Rushdie gives his account of societal and political life in Pakistan. He is satirical of the social conditions in the country which are the resultant of undemocratic, dictatorial and unlawful political practices of the leaders of Pakistan. The present paper attempts to analyze the issue of marginalization of women in the patriarchal society of Pakistan. Rushdie tries to highlight the denial of rights to the Pakistani masses, especially the women, by the rulers. Rushdie portrays the gloomy picture of the Pakistani society in which the women have to face acute sufferings and oppression and suppression has become the talk of the nation
Cultural, socio-psycho, migrant Identity and magic realism in the works of Salman Rushdie :
Through their basic research and study, several scholars came to the conclusion that Salman Rushdie’s work contained several cultural and socio-psycho elements in them. They also conceded to the fact that he used his work to show the extent at which migrants identified with their new place of abode. Another thing that was evident in the works of Salman Rushdie was the extent at which he portrayed magic realism through them. Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children is a book that had elements of magic realism in it. Several literatures shall be reviewed to show the extent at which Salman Rushdie integrated cultural, socio-psycho, migrant identity and migrant identity into his works.
Rushdie is an author that actually writes in English, but the fact remains that he is an author that still keeps the culture of his Indian origin at heart and this is evident in his writings. Zimringa believes that this adds to the cultural elements that Rushdie integrates into his works (Zmiringa 5-6). In his article, The passionate cosmopolitan in Salman Rushdie's Fury, Zmiringa came to the conclusion that Rushdie tried to reach out to his readers on the issue of cultural diversity and how some cultures and countries try to dominate other cultures and countries. Zmiringa believed that Rushdie’s Fury that was written in 2001 was his (Rushdie) attempt to show the extent at which his works contained elements of migrant identity as Zmiringa’s The passionate cosmopolitan in Salman Rushdie's Fury highlights the experience of American immigrants that was evident in Rushdie’s works. These facts are also present in Reder’s Conversations with Salman Rushdie (Rushdie & Reder 18-19)
Eva Aldea’s Magical Realism and Deleuze: The Indiscernibility of Difference in Postcolonial Literature talks about the presence of magic realism in the works of Salman Rushdie and the extent at which his works contained socio-psycho elements. Aldea’s review on Salman Rushdie was actually influenced by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze as she uses a radical approach on the presence of the elements of magic realism in the works of Salman Rushdie (Aldea 136).
Through the review of several literatures, the extent at which Salman Rushdie integrated cultural, socio-psycho, migrant Identity and magic realism into most of his works as these elements formed the basis of his works.
Conclusion :
The course of Indian writing in English is highly influenced by Salman Rushdie’s and he has attained a very important position in the literary field with a high respectable place in the reader’s heart.he authors deliberate use of magic realism helps in bringing out the surreal and unreal dimensions of the Indian subcontinent and thereby making it a postcolonial work.Fantasy is intentionally used so as to exceed the reality. Magicrealism helped the author to speak the
unspeakable. Various themes and elements of magic realism like the themes of diversity, dislocation, immigration, disintegration are symbolically used in various incidents in the text. The elements of pity and fear, time and space, sketch, eroticism, reappearance, all give an unrivalled beauty to this novel. The use of poetic language is worth noticing in this regard. Rushdie used magic realism as an effective tool to resolve the problems of postcolonialism.
So, by connecting and combining historical events, mythological stories and fictional narratives, Rushdie tries to create and convey a true picture of Indian postcolonialism and Indians as a monolithic place and people, the novel illustrates India’s multiplicity and diversity, in an attempt to overturn the colonial image of India.
Work Cited :
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Salman Rushdie". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Jun. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salman-Rushdie. Accessed 12 October 2021.
Dominic K V. Magic Realism and New Historicism in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children Magic Realism and New
Historicism in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. http://www.profkvdominic.com/?page_id=386. Assessed. 05/11/2017.
Ray Mohit K and Kundu, Rama eds. Salman Rushdie Critical Essays. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2006.
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. London: Vintage Books, 2006.
Sudha S. Postcolonial Environments in Midnight’s Children. IJELLH Volume V, Issue X, October 2017, 296-301.
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