“Political Issue Discussed in the Fiction of Salman Rushdie”
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Journal of Advances and JournalScholarly of Advances and Researches in Scholarly Researches in AlliedAllied Education Education Vol. V 3,I, Issue Issue No. 6, X II, October-2013, ISSN 2230- April7540-2012, ISSN 2230- 7540 REVIEW ARTICLE AN “POLITICAL ISSUE DISCUSSED IN THE FICTION OF INTERNATIONALLY SALMAN RUSHDIE” INDEXED PEER Study of Political Representations: REVIEWED & REFEREED JOURNAL Diplomatic Missions of Early Indian to Britain www.ignited.in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education Vol. VI, Issue No. XII, October-2013, ISSN 2230-7540 “Political Issue discussed In the Fiction of Salman Rushdie” Preeti Sharma1 Dr. Sandhya Saxena2 1Research Scholar, Shri Venkateshwara University, Gajraula 2Research Guide Abstract – Rushdie in his essay ‘In God We Trust’ has humbly claimed: However, I have found myself, in my fiction, unable to avoid political issues; the distance between individuals and affairs of State is now so small that it no longer seems possible to write novels that ignore the public sphere (Imaginary Homelands 376) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION minor and are only enabling devices to talk about the actuality. Magic realism has its own wonders. With the If his narrator's ancestral history exhibits his magic realism in the novels, they can be realistic in Autobiographical details, his concern displays the one way, magical in another, that is they can be interests of the masses also. His novels contain treated realistically in one society and as works of perhaps an exceptionally high proportion of real fantasy in the other. We have examples of the novels historical events, directly represented or readily by these two novelists i.e. Marquez's One Hundred recognizable public figures, and constant Years of Solitude and Rushdie's Midnight's Children resemblances to the known facts of his own life. The which are treated as fantasies in the West. histories are contemporaries with author's incorporation of contemporary literary theories. The defamation and bans that encountered Rushdie Rushdie preserves Indian history in the form of a so often are a strong evidence of the reality presented pickle with the ingredients of politics, geography, and in his fictive world. His 'inclusive' mode of writing literature and so on, hoping that 'One day the world defies precisely the arbitrary distinction between the may taste the pickles of history. fictional world of the book and the real world outside it, thus inviting political controversies. Rushdie, even The novelist, the essayist, the travel writer and the when he does, uses fantasy not out of whim but as 'a screenwriter, the martyr for free speech and purveyor method of producing intensified images of reality' - of story as the political statement, Rushdie has not images which have their roots in observable, verifiable only achieved the singular distinction of being fact. (Reder 43) recognized as an artist in his own lifetime but he is also arguably the most prominent novelist of the late Rushdie was well aware of the realistic presentation of 20th century, both for his literary achievements and for the grim situation in Pakistan, that it could lead to the controversies surrounding them. Like Marquez in official wrath and the dumping or banning of the book Spanish, Rushdie has taken history as his subject and which would break the 'writer's heart.' His comment fictionalized it, thus instituting a new genre. He has about the inappropriateness of the realistic mode is received almost every award in the course of a near similar in spirit to the rejection of this mode by the 3D-year career and has become the living image of satirists, who cover up their objects of derision in a the romantic writer; worldly, erudite and knowing, cloak of fantasy to save themselves from libel suits. equally at ease with the purveyors of pop culture and MD Fletcher in this context states that in Shame satire the intellectual arbiters of the literary taste, and a is complemented by fantasy. If we look at the whole scabrous critic of colonialism, be it political, social or range of satiric tradition, from the Greeks to the cultural. Despite his deep connection to the events of present, fantasy has invariably been a part of satire. his time he remains somehow removed from the ordinary sphere of existence; abstract, aloof, distant. Rushdie is explicit about his magic realism when he says that there is some magic of real in his whimsical When we compare Marquez with Rushdie we see that elements also. And the surreal techniques are the in India both the novelists are not taken to be means for attaining that and they are not end in fantasists. The fantasy elements in them are relatively themselves. To exemplify, Saleem in Midnight's www.ignited.in 1 Preeti Sharma1 Dr. Sandhya Saxena2 “Political Issue discussed In the Fiction of Salman Rushdie” Children has a distorted nose and this distortion And after magic realism, if we talk of narrativisation presents a certain view of the world. The magic that Rushdie employs in his novels, the unique style realism gives an edge to Rushdie's representation of he displays in it has amazed us. At the very onset of India, the clinch here is the subjectivity i.e. his India is his novels the beans are spilled to foreshadow the what his India is like rather than what India is like - not form, theme, and structure of the novel. The title an oracle of truth or objective representation. 'perforated sheet' in his novel Midnight's Children indicates the fragmented style that follows in the Once when Martin Amis, British novelist and a novel, and 'once upon a time' are the magical word- contemporary of Rushdie asked what he had and he stars that sparkles in the factual (real) history. And this had not, Rushdie succinctly answered: 'India.' And style is not only followed in this very novel but it very true to his words India has been not only the explains the narrative technique used in his other setting but also the grand theme of Rushdie's fiction, works also. The narrative in Midnight's Children holds and India's space in the Western literary world has uniformity in Saleem's search for his identity, meaning been greatly enhanced through his representations of and form both. This is the unity that binds the it. His novels present India as 'a continent finding its fragments in Shame and The Moor's Last Sigh also. voice' (New York Times) as if before him no literary His use 'of 'once upon a time' also shows his use of tradition existed to voice India! To explain this void an the familiar overture of the fairytales. academician, Robin J.Lewis has stated that Rushdie has 'altered our vision of the Indian sub-continent,' to Another organizing principle of his narrative is his the extent that all previous literary representations explicit reference to Scheherazade's tales. Like these, both by British writers such as Kipling and Forster and even his narrative is a blend of various stories told in by Indians such as Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan have various narrative modes spiced up with myths, been simultaneously proved lacking. legends, gossips, rumours and factual incidents. Rushdie through his narrator throws light on what is to R.S. Pathak rightly puts that Midnight's Children come in the following chapters - he admits number of 'incorporates the stupendous Indian past with its stories following up the commingling of improbable pantheon, its epics, and' its wealth of folklore and fairy and mundane. tales which at the same time playing a role in the tumultuous Indian present' (118). Rushdie through his Rushdie transforms in his protagonists also. After combination of semi-humorous and semi-serious tone, making Saleem, the hero, he in Shame dwelled on the reflects more profoundly on the ethos of the sub- peripheral hero who supported the main plot, was continent. He becomes successful in giving centre of the plot sometimes and remained on the expression to certain compelling realities. In Midnight's edges other time. The female characters of the novel Children, these are concerned with the contemporary also have their dominance. The peripheral nature of history of India, a long series of insensitive acts and Omar and centrality of Sameer give us a vision of self-centred people exploiting sectarian rivalry. In totality. Some people are the centre to the world and Shame too, fantasy evokes the tragic history of others are peripheral entities who are either Pakistan through its bizarre social customs and spectators or passive heroes throughout their lives. repressive political realities. We are reminded her of Ogden Nash's poem Confessions of a Born Spectator where we get to The plots of all his works are colorfully drawn by learn that all of us cannot actively participate but some employing the technique of parallels and contrasts. of us have to satisfy ourselves to remain as mere For example in the novel Shame, the confrontation is spectators throughout our lives. between two families (Hyder and Harappa), two forces (shame and shamelessness), two temperaments We see that Rushdie's characters are stolen pieces (Omar Khayyam and Babar) and two virtues out of people - somebody's one trait, other's all. As he (deformed and Good News). By the fusion of facts and has claimed himself in one of his interviews in fiction the novelist is able to mesmerize the reader. Midnight's Children except Indira Gandhi there are no Rushdie's style in Shame helps to create an unreal direct portraits. atmosphere in the novel. By giving his personal opinions he never makes readers realize that he is While dealing with the question of historical fabricating an illusion.