Exploring Magic Realism in Salman Rushdie's Fiction

1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-415-89778-5
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 266 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 518 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature

Kluwick breaks new ground in this book, moving away from Rushdie studies that focus on his status as postcolonial or postmodern, and instead considering the significance of magic realism in his fiction. Rushdie’s magic realism, in fact, lies at the heart of his engagement with the post/colonial.

In a departure from conventional descriptions of magic realism—based primarily on the Latin-American tradition—Kluwick here proposes an alternative definition, allowing for a more accurate description of the form. She argues that it is disharmony, rather than harmony, that is decisive: that the incompatibility of the realist and the supernatural needs to be recognized as a driving force in Rushdie’s fiction.

In its rigorous analysis of this Rushdian magic realism, this book considers the entire corpus—Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Shalimar the Clown, and The Enchantress of Florence. This study is the first of its kind to do so.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kluwick, Ursula

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Gattungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Indische & Dravidische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Defining Magic Realism: Historical and Theoretical Foundations, 2. Making Magic Realistic: The Realist Code, 3. Making Realism Magic: The Supernatural Code, 4. Verbal Magic: The Poetics of Ambivalence, 5. Of Beasts and Houris: Rushdie’s Magic Realist Characters, 6. Juicy Mangos, Sexy Spices: Magic Realism and the Strategies of Exoticist Discourse, 7. Magic Realism and the Politics of Ambivalence, 8. Conclusion – A New Trend?

Über Autor(innen)

Ursula Kluwick is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bern, Switzerland.