A Fight against realism:A study of Salman Rushdies Narrative technique in his select novels

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2005 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: A, course: English Literature, language: English, abstract: Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is an Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. He grew up in Bombay (now Mumbai) attended Rugby School, Warwickshire, then Kings College, Cambridge in England. Following an advertising career with Ayer Barker, he became a full-time writer. His narrative style, blending myth and fantasy with real life, has been described as connected with magic realism. His writing career began with Grimus, a fantastic tale, part-science fiction. His next novel, Midnights Children, however, catapulted him to literary fame and is often considered his best work to date. It also significantly shaped the course Indian writing in English was to follow over the next decade. This work later awarded the Booker of Bookers prize in 1993 after being selected as the best novel to be awarded the Booker Prize in its 25 years. Midnights Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. It centers on the authors native India and was acclaimed as a major milestone in Indian writing. Midnights Children is an allegory for the events in India after independence in 1947. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, a telepath with a nasal defect, who is born at the exact time that India became independent. Saleem Sinais life then parallels the changing fortunes of the country after independence. The novel is also an expression of the authors own childhood, his affection for the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) of those times, and the tumultuous variety of the Indian Subcontinent.