Filozofická fakulta

Conclusion

This thesis was examining some of the elements of magic realism that appear in three novels by Salman Rushdie – Midnight’s Children, Shame and The Satanic Verses. It introduced the elements that are either essential to understand a particular novel or those that are common to all three novels. For each novel, there is different ‘magic’ that serves a certain purpose. In Midnight’s Children it is the strong bond between a nation and an individual which causes the main hero’s supernatural abilities. Shame presents the ‘magical’ shifting of one’s shame to another person and thus personifying an abstract concept to a human being. The Satanic Verses mainly deals with the notions of fall and metamorphosis that become real. In all these instances the purpose of the main magical element is similar. The author is trying to draw the reader’s attention to the problems of an individual either in the eastern or western world. All the main characters are in a sense immigrants – they emigrated from East to West (The Satanic Verses) or just from one eastern state to another (Shame, Midnight’s Children). However far they emigrated, they all have to deal with the same issues, they are strangers in the new country. Thus, Rushdie employs magic realism to describe the difference between two worlds or the attitudes towards them (if considering the heroes’ minds).

Apart from the main magic-realist elements there are also ‘minor’ features that comprise great parts of the novels. This magic and miracles mostly belong to the mythology and tradition of the eastern world and are presented matter-of-factly without any commentary. They appear in all three novels and create the atmosphere of a typical magic-realist text.

I think that Rushdie wants to introduce the world he comes from with all its components and necessities and put it in the centre of western attention. At the same time he is not afraid of speaking his mind, even though it proved to be very dangerous. Maybe that is one reason for using magic realism – to avoid being attacked for criticising the political and social situation, he writes his novels under the cover-up of magic realism in which everything is possible.

Eventually, the reader does not have to believe in everything that is described in the fiction. For that reason the magic in the texts is not anyhow explained, only the author (who regularly enters the story) maintains that what happened is really true.

Let me conclude with Rushdie’s quotation:

“A book is a version of the world. If you don’t like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.”

6. Bibliography:

Appignanesi, Lisa, and Sara Maitland, ed. The Rushdie File. London: Fourth Estate, 1989.

Bertens, Hans, and Douwe Fokkema, ed. International Postmodernism: Theory and Literary Practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1997.

Bhabha, Homi K. Nation and Narration.

Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modern British Novel. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1994.

Brennan, Timothy. “Salman Rushdie.“ British Writers Supp.4 (1997): 433-57. 15 Jan. 2006. <http://www.dist113.org/dhs/Library/Class_links/Archives_2001-02/1stquarter/foucault_scribners.htm>.

Cody, Michael. “Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.“ The Explicator 56:4 (1998): 218-220. 6 Feb. 2006. <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/>.

Connor, Steven. The English Novel in History 1950-1995. London: Routledge, 1996.

D’haen, Theo L. “Magical Realism and Postmodernism: Decentering Privileged Centers.“ Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. 191-208 Ed. Lois P. Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Faris, Wendy B. “Scheherazade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction.” Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. 163-190. Ed. Lois P. Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Ghosh-Schellhorn, Martina. “Salman Rushdie.“ The Literary Encyclopedia. 16 May. 2003. The Literary Dictionary Company. 20 Feb. 2006. <http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3889>

Hogan, Patrick Colm. “Midnight’s children: Kashmir and the politics of identity.“ Twentieth Century Literature 47 (2001): 510-44. 6. Feb. 2006. <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/>.

Christie, John S., “Postethnic Narrative Criticism: Magicorealism in Oscar "Zeta" Acosta, Ana Castillo, Juile Dash, Hanif Kureishi, and Salman Rushdie.“ Modern Fiction Studies. 51 (2005): 225-28. 6 Feb. 2006. <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/>.

Lee, Alison. Realism and Power: Postmodern British Fiction. London: Routledge, 1990.

Lukavská, Eva. „Zázračné reálno“ a magický realismus: Alejo Carpentier versus Gabriel García Márquez. Brno: Host, 2003.

“Magic Realism.” Wikipedia. 2 Feb. 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism>.

Mengham, Rod, ed. Introduction to Contemporary Fiction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999.

Merivale, Patricia. “Saleem Fathered by Oskar: Midnight's Children, Magic Realism, and The Tin Drum.“ Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. 329-346. Ed. Lois P. Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Newell, Josh. “The Grotesque and Post-Colonialism in Shame.“ English. 34 (1991) <http://www.postcolonialweb.org/pakistan/literature/rushdie/srgrotesq.html>.

Richards, Linda. “Interview with Salman Rushdie.” January Magazine. Sep. 2002. 12 Jan. 2006. <http://www.janmag.com/profiles/rushdie2002.html>.

Rushdie, Salman. Midnight´s Children. London: Vintage, 1995. (in the thesis recognized as ‘Rushdie 1995-I‘)

---. Satanic Verses. Dover: Consortium, 1992.

---. Shame. London: Vintage, 1995. (recognized as ‘Rushdie 1995-II’)

“Salman Rushdie.” Wikipedia. 19 Mar. 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rushdie>.

Sandhu, Sukhdev, “Salman Rushdie: A Postmodern Reading of His Major Works.“ Modernism/Modernity. 10 (2003): 789-90. 6 Feb. 2006. <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/>.

Seminck, Hans. A Novel Visible But Unseen: A Thematic Analysis of Salman Rushdie´s The Satanic Verses. Gent: Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, 1993.

Simpkins, Scott. “Sources of Magic Realism/Supplements to Realism in Contemporary Latin American Literature.” Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. 145-162. Ed. Lois P. Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Stewart, Nicholas. “Magic Realism as post-colonialist device in Midnight’s Children.” 21 Jun 1999. Queen’s University Belfast. 20 Nov 2006. <http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/imperial/india/rushdie.htm>.

Thiem, Jon, “The Textualization of the Reader in Magical Realist Fiction.“ Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. 235-248. Ed. Lois P. Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Thody, Phillip. Twentieth-Century Literature: Critical Issues and Themes. London: MacMillan Press Ltd, 1996.

Walker, Steven, F., “Magical Archetypes: Midlife Miracles in The Satanic Verses.“ Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. 347-370. Ed. Lois P. Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Weldon, Fay. Sacred Cows. London: Chatto & Windus,1989.

1 Booker of Bookers – a prize given to a book that is considered to be the most successful Booker Prize winner in 25 years.

2 I was using two sources, both in the electronic form

3 in the world of the novel.

4 By real I mean that it is believable

5 Fatwa – legal pronouncement in Islam issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue. In this case it is fatwa for the execution on S.R. by Ayatollah Khomeini from 1898 (Wikipedia)

6 The immigrants, or the people not of English origin in general.

7 The metaphor being literalized

8 The author becomes ‘textualized’ – literally (magically) transported into the world of text (Zamora 235).

9 As the main characters are without any doubt confronted with the problems of racism and xenophobia that arise from the immigant‘s status.