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“ I don’t think there is a need for an entity like God in my life.”
Subtitle
Salman Rushdie 1947-
Biography
▪ Born: June 19, 1947 in Bombay, India
▪ Grew up in a Muslim household
▪ well-educated parents. –His father was a Cambridge-educated lawyer turned
businessmen and his mother was a teacher.
▪ Educated at:– Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, –1961 King’s College, Cambridge.
▪ 1964 moved with his family from Bombay to Pakistan
Books Written:
▪ 1975: Grimus
▪ 1980: Midnight's Children
▪ 1987: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
▪ 1983: Shame
▪ 1989: The Satanic Verses
▪ 1990: Haroun and the Sea of Stories
▪ 1991: Imaginary homelands
▪ 1994: East, West
▪ 1995: The Moor's Last Sigh
▪ 1999: The Ground Beneath her Feet
Salman’s Major themes for plots
▪ India’s National Identity vs. British colonization Indian diaspora
▪ His definition of migrant identity and the themes of Indian diaspora
▪ Colonialism and Gender/Power Struggle
Salman’s Writing Styles
▪ known for melding different cultures and traditions in his writing
▪ celebrates the postcolonial subject
▪ questions conventional views on religion, politics, and social forms.
▪ Magic Realism: – a style of painting and literature in which fantastic or imaginary
and often unsettling images or events are depicted in a sharply detailed, realistic manner.
▪ His work often deals with the confusion and misunderstandings between 2 cultures, especially the east vs. the west.
▪ Rushdie’s love of English is apparent in his wordplay and his fantastic use of language which shaped the course of Indian literature in English.
Has Expressed need to :
▪ “move beyond tradition”
▪ Muslim Reformation : “bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age”
▪ Combat jihadist ideologues/challenge traditionalists– [throw] open the windows to let in much needed fresh
air.
▪ Study religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. – “Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance”– “open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.” .
Mid Night Children Plot :
▪ Plot built around kashmir: Exactly at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, two boys are born in a Bombay hospital, where they are switched by a nurse. Around that time, a thousand children were born and they are the “midnight children.”
Aziz + Naseem
Saleem
Hindu woman+ British colonialist
Muslim couple(Mumtaz+ Ahmed) Shiva
The Sanatic Verses :
▪ The Satanic Verses was a novel published by Rushdie in 1988.
▪ The book is controversial for its depiction of Muhammad and some verses in the Koran.
▪ When Rushdie refused to apologize, Tension
Fuelled around the Globe.
Result:
▪ The novel was BANNED in India 9
days after it was published.
▪ The book was BURNED at organized
demonstrations in India, UK, and
Muslim countries.
▪ The book was so controversial and
offensive to Muslims that Iran’s
Spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
called for his execution in a Fatwa.
Haroun & the Sea of Stories
• Published in 1990, it was the first book published after the Fatwa.
• Rushdie dedicated the book to his son.
• The novel is about a famous storyteller who all of a sudden loses his ability to weave and tell tales.
• The son of the storyteller makes a fantastic, adventurous journey to save his father and to save stories.
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories deals with the danger of storytelling, though. And this is a concept that Rushdie knows better than most.
Unquestionably Talented Writer
▪ Won Booker prize in 1981f or Midnight’s Children
▪ 1981: Received Booker McConnell Prize for Fiction for Midnight’s Children
▪ 1981: Received literary award from English Speaking Union for Midnight’s Children
▪ 1982: Received James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Midnight’s Children
Personality Resembling Farasi poet Ghalib
( excerpts taken from late Jagdish Ghimire Master piece )