A postmodern carnival : tracing the subversion of religion in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's children, Shame and The satanic verses

Abstract

Abstract

The thesis looks at Rushdie s three first major novels (Midnight s Children, Shame and The Satanic Verses) as a loose-knit trilogy and examines the way Rushdie uses literary techniques belonging to postmodern and postcolonial aesthetics in order to deconstruct the whole idea of divine revelation and thereby subverting the authority of any religion which claims a divine origin and a transcendent understanding of the human condition.

Although the carnival theme is the most central to the discussion, literary techniques and constructions such as Menippean satire, rhizome, simulacrum, inversion, historiographic metafiction and leitmotif are also examined. The aim is to show how Rushdie s treatment of central themes such as identity, history and religion is consistent throughout the novels, with special attention to the theme of religion.

Although all the novels deal with the same central themes, the thesis shows how the themes of identity and religion are intensified in each subsequent novel and that The Satanic Verses is to be considered an amalgamation of the two and the dénouement of the first movement of Rushdie s works.

The thesis concludes that the complex literary discourse which is The Satanic Verses has largely been misunderstood by critics who do not appreciate or disregard the conventions of the Western novel, and that when viewed in context with the two preceding works should be regarded as a serious attempt to do battle with and raise debate about the central issues facing modern man from the perspective of a modern migrant. Having said this, the thesis questions the efficacy of the use of the carnival theme in relation to the subversion of religion and the pragmatics of the suggestions that emerge from the novels of how to consolidate the predicament of the complex postmodern condition.