Salman Rushdie: General Introduction: His life n 1947 born in Bombay, son of a Cambridge-educated merchant of Muslim background; n 1961 Studied in England n 1964 moved with his family from Bombay to Pakistan 1989, Feb. "fatwa"

Salman Rushdie: General Introduction (2) n 1975: Grimus; 1987: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey; 1990: Haroun and the Sea of Stories n 1980: Midnight's Children n 1983: Shame n 1989: The Satanic Verses n 1991: Imaginary homelands n 1994: East, West n 1995: The Moor's Last Sigh n 1999: The Ground Beneath her Feet

Salman Rushdie: Major Themes n India’s National Identity vs. British colonization Indian diaspora n His definition of migrant identity and the themes of Indian diaspora n Colonialism and Gender/Power Struggle n General Introduction to Midnight’s Children

Rushdie: migrant identity What is the best thing about migrant peoples and seceded nations? I think it is their hopefulness... And what is the worst thing? It is the emptiness of one's luggage....We have floated upwards from history, from memory, from Time. (70-71) n “It maybe be argued that the past is a country from which we have all migrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity....”

Rushdie: Pakistan & migrant writer Although I have known Pakistan for a long time, I have never lived there for longer than six months at a stretch...I have learned Pakistan by slices...however I choose to write about over-there, I am forced to reflect that in fragments of broken mirrors...I must reconcile myself to the inevitability of the missing bits.... n Immigrant writer: "the ability to see at once from inside and out is a great thing, a piece of good fortune which the indigenous writer cannot enjoy." (4)

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship n History The Images of Columbus in history: a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist. 2. East India and West Indies 3. King Ferdinand and Queen I (p. 110)

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella of Spain: Structure n I. C & I seen by the two speakers; n II. A third-person description of the I’s treatment of C. –1. C as a secret lover and a sex toy; p. 109 –2. C as a slave (in pigsty and body-washing) –3. Columbus’ reactions: possibilities n III. The two’s description of I; n IV. Departure, A Dream and a dream of a dream

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella: How is the story a satire of colonialism? The image of Columbus: –coarse and flattering p. 107; –a drunkard –adventure as his meaning of life 112 Queen Isabella –an absoluate monarch, a tyrant, p –gallops around. P ; her appetites –the descriptions of her bodily parts p. 113

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella: How is the story a satire of colonialism? n The two dreams –C’s dream -- a vision p. 116 not be satisfied by the known –savage dream Are these dreams true of not? –the ending n The two speakers and their roles –Their attitudes towards foreigners 108 –Their description of the queen –Their function as messengers at the end

Midnight’s Children n Plot: 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

Midnight’s Children: Plot (2) n Midnight Children as a national allegory from cultural conflicts and national movements in the colonial period to the “birth” of the nation as well as its 3000 midnight’s children to the gradual fragmentation of Saleem’s body, the children, and the nation

Midnight’s Children: narrative methods n The narrator and narrative methods (p. 3) Digressive, foreboding and summarizing. Talking about his own writings. A mixture of tones: humorous, poetic, crude and with ribald jokes (e.g. snot) n Mixing the personal and the historical/political n Motifs -- e.g. hole in the nose, perforated sheet, p. 13 -

Midnight’s Children: Cultural Identity n e.g. grandfather Aziz Aziz His mother Indian belief German knowledge Boatman Tai His wife Ghani’s house

Midnight’s Children: Kashmire