A CRITICAL STUDY OF HIS NOVELS
THESIS
submitted to
GOA UNIVERSITY
, for the award of the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH 223.91Lt
by
PREMA ANGELA ROCHA
Guide DR. K. S. BHAT (Head, Dept. of English, Goa University)
Co-Guide DR. NINA CALDEIRA (Reader, Dept. of English, Goa University)
GOA UNIVERSITY TALEIGAO PLATEAU
JULY 2008
Ct-i ri-ib IAA 0.1 eLAAlie- kPa et.-if tt/1 kel,VP Lev-, i vt,e,0-( p5-6-0.4-3 2/eg 2-0) t d LNAvz. r e at:N.,- krtm, DECLARATION
I, Ms. Prema Angela Rocha, hereby declare that this thesis entitled
Salman Rushdie: A Critical Study of His Novels is the outcome of my own research undertaken under the guidance of Dr. K.S. Bhat, Head,
Department of English, Goa University. All the sources used in the course of this work have been duly acknowledged in the thesis. This work has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or certificate of this or any other University.
Prema A. Rocha
Date: 28. 07. 2008 CERTIFICATE
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled Salman Rushdie: A Critical
Study of His Novels, submitted by Ms. Prema Angela Rocha for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, has been completed under my guidance. The thesis is a record of the research work conducted by the candidate during the period of her study and has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or certificate of this or any other University.
Dr. K.S. Bhat Research Guide Head, Dept. of English Goa University Date: 28. 07. 2008
iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The study of a living writer offers a unique challenge, more so when the writer in consideration happens to be one as polemical as Salman Rushdie. Motivated singularly by admiration on reading Rushdie many years ago, the idea of research germinated. A debt of gratitude is owed to many who helped me bring my research to fruition.
To begin with, I render thanks to my Creator for blessing this endeavour.
One of the intriguing aspects of Rushdie's texts is the multiple parentage of the protagonists. In a case where fact seems reminiscent of fiction, I have been fortunate to have had a triumvirate of supervisors:
I am immensely grateful to my research guide Dr. K.S. Bhat who helped me sharpen the focus of my main argument. His critical orientation, meticulous criticism and good humour have been invaluable.
For her keen insights and moral support, I am thankful to my co-guide Dr.
Nina Caldeira.
My initial forays into the Rushdie pantheon began under the guidance of Dr.
Anita Vashishta. I gratefully recall her kindness and assistance with the initial refining of ideas.
I wish to express my gratitude to my teachers at the Department of English of the Goa University for timely suggestions and encouragement: Dr. Kiran Budkuley,
Dr. Edith Melo Furtado and Dr. Rafael Fernandes whose constant exhortations to
"write" was, as I ultimately discovered, the only way to get it done.
This work owes an incalculable debt of gratitude to the UGC for the sanction of the fellowship under the Faculty Improvement Programme.
iv Principal Newman Fernandes of St. Xavier's College deserves special thanks for his impetus to higher academic goals and for permitting me to avail of the sabbatical. I also gratefully acknowledge the support of my colleagues at the
Department of English of St. Xavier's College.
For the valuable professional assistance at the various libraries visited I am grateful: the Mysore University library, the Jawaharlal Nehru University library -
New Delhi, the Karnatak University library - Dharwad, the Mumbai University library, the Mumbai centres of the British Council and American Library and the Goa
University library. The late Dr. C. D. Narasimhaiah's hospitality at the Library of
Commonwealth Studies - Dhvanyaloka deserves a mention.
To my precious friends - for collaboration on some of the adventures in quest of reading material and for cheering me on at all times — my heartfelt thanks. A special "thank you" to Rodney Benedito Ferrao for going out of his way to locate and send me some significant critical texts all the way from the U.S. and the UK inspite of his own academic commitments, and to Andy Silveira for procuring some valuable reading material from Chennai University.
And finally I acknowledge my greatest debt. I owe far more than a vote of thanks to Jervis and to little Jade for supporting my immersion in matters Rushdian, for putting up with a home inundated with paper and enabling me to work unfettered as far as was possible. Without them, and the love and encouragement of my mother, my late father, my siblings and my parents-in-law, there would have been nothing to write an acknowledgement for.
Prema Rocha CONTENTS
I Of Imaginary Homelands: Introduction 1
II Problematising History, Politics and Identity: Re-reading Midnight's Children and Shame 52
III Diasporic Dislocation: Traversing Transnational Spaces in The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Fury 103
IV A Return to Roots: Revisiting the Imagined Homeland in The Moor's Last Sigh and Shalimar the Clown 143
V Writing in a Postmodern/ Postcolonial Space: Rushdie's Narrative Landscape 176