Magical Realism In Midnight's Children By Salman Rushdie

SOUTH ASIAN WRITERS IN ENGLISH

Salman Rushdie

Born during the year of Indian independence(19th July, 1947), Sir Salman Rushdie is one of the most prominent and renowned British Indian novelist and essayist whose work of literature has been both critically accredited as well as caused extreme controversies to the point of fatwa being issued against him.

His literary works involve fiction based novels which mostly revolve around the backdrop of Indian subcontinent; crafted along with a unique blend of historical fiction and a touch of magical realism. He has won the booker prize award in the year 1981 for his second novel known as Midnight’s Children (1981).

Rushdie’s work reflects upon the issues that have arisen due to migration between Eastern

Copyright© 2015, The Columbia University Press: Sir Salman Rushdie (sälmän´ rōōsh´dē), 1947–, British novelist, b. Bombay (now Mumbai, India). He is known for the allusive richness of his language and the wide variety of Eastern and Western characters and cultures he explores. His first novels, including Midnight's Children (1981; Booker Prize; adapted for the stage by Rushdie, 2003) and Shame (1983), incorporate the technique of magic realism; elements of this approach can also be found in his later fiction. Parts of his allegorical novel The Satanic Verses (1988) were deemed sacrilegious and enraged many Muslims, including Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, who in 1989 issued a fatwa sentencing Rushdie to death. Violence occurred in some cities where the book was sold, and Rushdie went into hiding. From his seclusion he wrote Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), a novelistic allegory against censorship; East, West (1995), a book of short stories; and The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), a novel that examines India's recent history through the life of a Jewish-Christian family. The Iranian government ended its support for the fatwa in 1998, but since 2004 a state-linked Iranian religious foundation has offered a bounty for Rushdie's murder. Rushdie's first post-fatwa novel, The Ground beneath Her Feet (1999), mingles myth and reality in a surreal world of rock music celebrity. Since then he has also written the novels Fury (2001), Shalimar the Clown

This intricate mixture of dream and reality is also complicated by the difficulty of the efforts to translate dream-language into reality or reality into dream-language.

Impacts:

The book drew rather negative criticism due to the resemblance of the fictional character to Prophet Mohammad and majority of Muslim population saw it as insulting and offensive. The effects of his particular work have led to the issue of fatwa by the Supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini in February 14th, 1989 along with several death threats.

The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed. The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities. (13 total: Iran, India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela, and Pakistan.)

Literary work of Salman Rushdie:

Novels[edit]

Grimus (1975)

Midnight's Children (1981)

Shame