Contents

Introduction........................................................................................................... 1
A Discussion of Narrative in the Context of Novels of Salman Rushdie................6
Grimus as a Novel and as an Introduction to Rushdian Theories of History.........9
Historical Truth in Salman Rushdies Midnights Children: A Question of
Perspective.......................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 21
Bibliography......................................................................................................... 23

Introduction

This thesis explores the fictional works of Salman Rushdie, and the use of history and fiction
in his narrative. The purpose of this study is to prove that through a combination of history
and fiction, Rushdie is able to explode existing mythologies and to offer in their place
alternate truths and realities. He is a new writer, but has already established his importance
because of his Itinerary excellence, and the dramatic political and religious impact of his
novels.
The project approaches the fictional works of Salman Rushdie from two angles: from theories
of history and theories of fiction. The section on fictional theories concentrates on the studies
in narrative and structure by Mieke Bal, Gerald Prince and Seymour Chatman. The ideas
developed and supported by these and other theorists discussed in the chapter emphasize the
structure or form of the narrative. It is basically a double structure, composed of story (what
is told) and discourse (how it is told).
This double structure is exploited by Rushdie throughout his entire trilogy composed of
Midnight's Children, Shame, and The Satanic Verses. Antithetical themes, structures and
characters in the novels work in much the same way as the twin formation of story and
discourse. They are diametrically opposed, yet entirely interdependent; to such a degree that
one could not survive without the other. In a sense, they function like magnets; attracting and
repelling each other at the same time. There is a considerable amount of energy in the
combination, a tension between characters, forces and ideas that gives form to the discourse
and momentum to the story.
Rushdie's novels have a firm historical grounding; both in recent political and cultural history,
and in more academic theories of history. Because their influence is not only felt, but stressed
and explored within the text, it is important to review some theories of history, especially
those that explore its narrative nature. Several philosophers of history are interested in this
aspect of history; they include Hayden White, Louis O. Mink and Paul Ricoeur.
The second chapter is a discussion of the nature of history, tracing the development of
scholarly findings on the topic, through its various phases and counter phases. The pendulum
of thought swings from scientific, to what was at one point anti-scientific, but is now the
more independent theory of narrative. Narrative is the umbrella term that opens up to cover
history on one side and literature on the other. There are other types of narrative, even non-
verbal narrative, such as opera, ballet, pantomime, et cetera. Ricoeur, through his own studies
and his references to Arthur Danto, stresses the similarities between history and literature by
defining historical narrative in almost the same terms as Gerald Prince de fines fictional
narrative in the first chapter.
History does not happen in a story form, just as life does not either. A universal history does
not already exist, simply waiting for an historian to record it on paper. One must participate in
history, and the writing of history. A historian is not merely a witness to the past about which
s/he writes, but s/he is a participant and an interpreter. Even if the historian does personally
witness a certain happening, it cannot just be recorded, but it must be put into perspective and
given meaning, by relating it to preceding and following events, and as Danto writes, "As
parts of temporal wholes".
Hayden White expands on the interpretive aspect of writing history, for history is a narrative,
and historical works can easily and revealingly be studied in methods very similar to those
used for studying fiction. White addresses how history is written, emphasizing the poetic
characteristics involved. This includes interpreting the data, and 'prefiguring' the field, that is,
constituting it "as an object of mental perception". He feels that before writing, one must
examine the entire set of events and decide what the purpose of the text will be. Once the
hypothesis has been decided and declared, then you can move on to the next stage, which is
how to present your data, in which narrative form and style. This is a poetic or artistic way of
viewing history, because it focuses on the historian's very individual interpretation of the
'facts', rather than a scientific view which would be closer to a chronicle-like presentation of
the event, allowing the 'facts' of the past to speak for themselves.
But as White states, and Rushdie supports, this scientific view is impossible because absolute
truth does not exist, and recording the barest of facts involves some level of interpretation;
one must decide which facts even warrant recording.
History and fiction employ similar narrative and story structure in order to reach the
audience. The main difference between the two, according to Mink, "lies not in the kinds of
intelligibility and understanding they respectively afford, but in the nature and kinds of
evidence for the truth of their statements". Rushdie, in his novels, wants not only to provide
evidence for the truth of his statement, but to challenge the existing truths, norms and
mythologies, and to offer in their place another possible vision of the world. He feels that it is
his, and every writer's duty to challenge the official version of history and to offer an alternate
reality. He does not expect or desire his image of this alternate reality to be taken as a
replacement for the official rendition, for that would merely substitute one confining
viewpoint with another. Instead,' the wants to propose to the reader a possibility, or rather
possibilities, of reality, to create cracks in the closed official version of Life, and to allow for
seepage between the various states of being.
He challenges the official, accepted interpretation of history in two ways. He tackles recent
historical events in his novels, and he explores concepts of history. Rushdie blends elements
of fantasy with journalistic facts, magical creatures with real life public figures. He is even
courageous and reckless enough to contest the most solid and sanctioned of truths, at least to
those who profess to be believers, the Islamic religion.
His first novel, Grimus, is an investigation of the concepts of time and history, and how
myths develop. The main idea of history introduced is that the historian cannot be an outside
observer, but must be a participant in the events sIhe transcribes. By writing about the past,
one is interpreting it and thus influencing it. It is not possible to tell 'the truth', or present 'the
facts', because truths are numerous and facts are subjective. The other significant notion
presented here is his inquiry into the concept of myth. This is done In Grimus primarily
through the character of I.Q. Gribb who studies how myths originate. Gribb is engrossed in
the analysis of race-memory, "the sediment of highly concentrated knowledge that passes
down the ages", and as a corollary study has looked at "the growth of a mythology in a single,
long-lived generation". This mythology, of course, is the story of Grimus, and the Stone
Rose. It is strange that this story has mutated from being a real event into a myth, at least in
the psyches of the Island's citizens.
Rushdie is also questioning the idea that immortality in its most successful form means not
only living forever, but remaining the same forever: stagnating. The hero, Flapping Eagle, a
symbol in North America of independence and bravery, encounters the ancient Persian myth
of the Simurg, and the myth of the Phoenix. Rebirth out of the ashes of the past is worthless if
it means an identical repetition of the past. Empires and traditions may exist, but only if they
are a positive force that allow for growth. If not, then change, even if it means destruction to
the existing order, is preferable.
The next three novels, Rushdie's trilogy composed of Midnight's Children, Shame and The
Satanic Verses, all try to deflate or destroy existing mythologies. In the first two books, these
mythologies are in the form of the history of the subcontinent since Independence, which is a
major myth within itself. The third novel, The Satanic Verses, investigates two main
concepts: England as the center of civilization, and the myth of Islam.
Midnight's Children tells the parallel tales of the private story of Saleem Sinai, and the public
history of the Indian sub-continent. The two stories are interconnected and interdependent.
Saleem is the narrator, hero, storyteller and creator. Through his efforts, the myth of
Independent India is being reborn. His version of Indian history differs from the official
version, in how it actually happened, what motivated it, and in how it is recorded for future
generations. Saleem, who influences past events in four distinct ways, continues to be a
significant factor through his struggles to preserve the past. This is done through 'the
chutnification of history'; a process which may sharpen some of the flavours, but allows the
different ingredients to retain their individual characteristics. Yet before the past reaches the
point at which it can be preserved for posterity, it undergoes several translations. It is viewed
through a filter of time and memory, and from one specific point of reference, that is, how it
affected and was affected by Saleem Sinai and his family. The official version of history is no
less biased, because it too is seen from a specific reference point; that of the ruling forces at
the time. Thus, history is experienced, remembered, written, spoken and finally stored in
pickle jars. Much of what is normally accepted as the real past has been exposed as false or
distorted through Saleem's rendition. Rushdie's point is not for the reader to replace the
sanctified account with Saleem's; he is portrayed as too unreliable a narrator for the reader to
take such a naive view. Instead, Rushdie is opening up the myth of India in order to allow
leakage of other opinions and viewpoints, so that alternative versions can begin to be heard.

In Shame, Rushdie tackle the northern end of the sub-continent, Pakistan. Again, the official
history is exposed as being one possible way of seeing the situation, and not the only or
definitive way. Politics and politicians are the main targets of this novel, because the creation
of Pakistan was a very political act; sharp and sudden rather than a natural progression
through the course of history. Islam is shown to be just one of many tools employed by
politicians in order to gain and to remain in power. Also analyzed is the way in which
peoples' emotions can be manipulated by those in authority; how restricting people, imposing
on them limits of thought and behavior will cause certain responses to occur. Thus, by
imposing Islamic restrictions on the citizens of Pakistan, those in control are able to remain at
the top. The same concept is employed in England by those with racist or bigoted attitudes.
Pakistan, the land of the Pure, is parodied by Rushdie's mirror image, Peccavistan, a country
of sin. Political leaders are exposed as idiotic, and corrupt, Islam as repressive, especially to
women, and the entire tale of the history of Pakistan in dire need of rewriting and revisioning,
There;5 not one dominant voice here as was Saleem's in Midnights Children, but a multitude
of voices or points of view. The result is to provide a confusing but varied look at the creation
of Pakistan, which is juxtaposed with chilling anecdotes of the present situation in that
country, and in England too. Hence, another version of the past is proposed, although it is
les5 hopeful and future-oriented than Saleem's.
While it can be a risky undertaking to challenge recent and still-existing political regimes, it
is quite another matter to contest major world religions. Islam is the subject of Rushdie's
myth-breaking in as least part of The Satanic Verses. In his previous works, Rushdie has
shown his dissatisfaction with the rule-oriented and therefore restrictive Islamic religion,
which seeks to govern not only the spiritual but also the secular concerns of its adherents.
Rushdie hopes not only to discuss what he shows to be terrifying mutations of Islamic
thought (the Imam and his anti-progress revolutionaries), but the very foundations of Islam
itself. The dream sequences about Mahound and Jahilia are also the exploration of a modern
divided self who is experiencing a loss of faith, "and is strung out between his immense need
to believe and his new inability to do so.
If adhering to the strict, traditional codes is not the answer, neither is submerging oneself
utterly into English, or modern, Western, culture, in the hopes of washing away all traces on
one's sub-continental heritage, Of course this is not possible, for no matter how much Saladin
sounds, thinks, dresses and acts Like an Englishman, no matter how much he himself
believes in his Englishness, he will always remain, by virtue of pigmentation, an Indian.
Another possibility is combining Indian and English characteristics; unfortunately this is
perceived as an unsatisfactory answer, as, the researcher believe, is the solution offered in the
text of retreating back to the motherland.
Rushdie never claims to offer solutions; his goal is to make people aware that there are other
possibilities, alternate realities existing simultaneously with what is generally accepted as the
'reality', He wishes to challenge humanity to awaken, politically and intellectually, to confront
what they know or fear to be untrue, and to be brave enough to take the leap into the worlds
of uncharted and endless possibilities.

A Discussion of Narrative in the Context of

Novels of Salman Rushdie

History and fiction are both part of a larger category, narrative. Narrative draws history and
fiction together by emphasizing their common qualities, but allows them at the same time to
retain their separateness. History and fiction have different goals, but use similar methods to
reach these goals. Historians often use a story form to convey information and to support
their theories about the past. History is commonly used by novelists as a source of setting,
character and even plot. Within his writing, Salman Rushdie combines elements of history
and fiction. He blends historical and fictional data to tell his story, the story of the
subcontinent.

Rushdie writes out of the tradition of the Indo-Anglian novel in which history has always
played a crucial role. Since its birth in the 18th century, the novel of India (that is the novel
about India or by Indians), has centered on the historical occurrences of the subcontinent.
There have been an abundance of bloody and dramatic events from which to draw
inspiration, ranging from the Indian Mutiny of 1857 through the happenings of the 20th
century: the Quit India movement, Swaraj (non-violent noncooperation), Independence, the
Partition, Bangladesh, and the Emergency of 1975. There has been a plethora of exciting
characters worthy of many volumes; these include such leaders as the Mahatma Gandhi,
Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and her sons, Sanjay and Rajiv, Jinnah,
Bhutto, Zia, Sheik Abdullah ... the list goes on.
Thus it is no wonder that Salman Rushdie has chosen the Indian subcontinent, the land of his
birth and heritage, as the focal point of his novels Midnight's Children, Shame, and The
Satanic Verses. But Rushdie is not merely (if one could use that term to describe a topic as
controversial and enervating as Indian history), interested in recreating the past, or
fictionalizing it to fit his story. Instead, he is concerned with exploring larger issues: the
question of history itself and its creation, the idea of truth and memory, and the concept of
narrative. Rushdie read history at Cambridge and therefore has a scholarly interest in these
topics. But he also has an emotional attachment to India (he was born in Bombay), and
Pakistan (he is a Moslem and his family currently resides in Pakistan), yet also to England,
his home of choice with his wife.

History is a motivating force in Rushdie's work and in his life. His interest in the subject is
academic, literary, political and personal. The settings, plots and even themes of his novels
are inspired by historical events and historical theories. He challenges the established
histories and mythologies, showing them to be inadequate and often untrue. He does not
simply rewrite history, but creates cracks and holes that allow for the infiltration of alternate
views and realities.
Not only has Rushdie revised and influenced history in his novels, but he and his novels are
currently involved in the creation of history. The radical nature of his works has placed him in
the center of academic, theological and political debate that reaches to the very core of
conflicting systems of belief: religious faith versus individual freedom. In all his novels,
Rushdie attacks the narrow and stifling views sponsored by governments and religions,
preferring instead a more open vision of life. In a short story entitled "Untime of the Imam,"
he describes a horrific nightmare of an Ayatollah-like fundamentalist who seeks to destroy the
past and to impose his suffocating image of life on the people for eternity. Rushdie's story is
in a sense a prophecy of Khomeini's recent actions, for Rushdie had no way of knowing that
he and his novels would be under direct fire from the Ayatollah's de-education scheme, that
The Satanic Verses would cause protest marches, book burnings and bookstore bombings, or
that he would be forced to live in hiding with a $5.2 million death threat on his head.

History is everywhere in the works and life of Rushdie, and this is stressed within the
narrative by Rushdie himself. My goal in this thesis is to examine the role history plays in the
writing, and investigate how he uses elements of history and fiction in the narrative to disturb
the status quo, and to allow for fluctuations in what we normally understand as truth and
reality.

Rushdie's body of work includes a few short stories, four novels and a travel book. His first
book, Grimus, falls within the genre of fantasy. His next two novels, Midnight's Children and
Shame, focus on the story of the subcontinent and its struggle toward maturation through
Independence. His fourth book is of a very personal nature, an account of his visit to
Nicaragua. His fifth and so far final endeavour is the controversial The Satanic Verses, which
completes what Rushdie himself has admitted is a loose trilogy, along with Midnight's
Children and Shame. The Satanic Verses continues the story begun in the first two books, and
expands the tale of the struggle of the subcontinent after Independence in 1948. This time his
focus is not the recent past or the history of Independence, but rather two very separate
periods: the present situation of subcontinental immigrants in England, and a mythical past,
during the era of the fabled prophet Mahound.
It is on three distinct levels that the works of Salman Rushdie will be examined. The first
level deals with a study of narrative in the broadest sense. Here it is not an individual work,
or the works of a single author that are to be explored, but the greater areas of historical and
literary narrative. Some of the concepts mentioned here will be discussed in the other levels,
such as the use and the alteration of historical and literary facts, and the employment of
various discourses with a similar story for different purposes. A discussion of the nature of
history, art and science will be included. The ideas of critical as well as historical and literary
theorists, such as Hayden White, Paul Ricoeur, Louis O. Mink and others, will be used as a
base. It will be argued that history is an art that employs scientific methods. Literature, too,
can be seen as having a scientific or at least a pseudo-scientific quality, as is exemplified in
linguistic studies as well as other highly form or structure oriented methodologies such as
formalism or structuralism, as their names suggest.
The second level is that of the individual text. Each novel possesses a unique balance of story
and discourse, as well as varied combinations of what is told (story) and how it is told
(discourse). Many techniques are employed, and they change from novel to novel. Rushdie is
not only interested in telling each story to the audience, but also in discovering how a story is
told. This includes an exploration of certain concepts; memory, truth, and the alterations that
occur within the telling of a story from the occasion of an event, to the remembering and the
recording of the same event.
The third level is one referred to briefly earlier in this section. It concerns the concept of
Midnight's Children, Shame, and The Satanic Verses comprising a loose trilogy. That is, these
three novels that form the core of Rushdie's work thus far, are telling the same story. This is
not to say that these novels are identical, use the same characters, or that they speak about
precisely the same events. There is a certain amount of overlapping, but the novels produced
are three distinct texts. It is rather a continuation or expansion of one story, the story of the
subcontinent, told in different styles through different voices.
Grimus as a Novel and as an Introduction to
Rushdian Theories of History
Grimus, the first novel of Salman Rushdie, belongs to the fantasy genre, and is not directly
linked to historical events in the same way as the short stories discussed above, and his
subsequent novels: Midnight's Children, Shame, and The Satanic Verses. They are intimately
linked to the historical and political events of the subcontinent, but Grimus is linked to the
concepts of History (with a capital H), in conjunction with time, change and immortality.
Grimus is a tale of fantasy, of magic potions that grant life eternal, of alien creatures and of
travel through space and time to other dimensions. The story does not fit into the trilogy
formed by Rushdie's other fictional works, but serves as a means of presenting themes and
concepts vital to later works.

Grimus, his first novel, provides an opportunity for Rushdie to discuss some of his ideas
about history. Rushdie studied history at Cambridge and has a special interest in the subject.
Throughout his novels, we find that his concepts of history revealed through his presentations
of history, his story and through his narrators' and protagonists' views, have some similarities
to the concepts of the Annales School.
The basic premise of the story of Grimus is fairly simple; three men, Virgil, Deggle and
Grimus discover a Stone Rose of incredible powers which was left by alien life forms. These
powers include enabling these men to travel to other dimensions of time and space,
conceptualizing other worlds, and granting immortality to themselves and to others. The three
choose certain mortals they deem worthy of everlasting life, and provide them with a world,
Calf Island (an anglicized spelling of the Arabic Kaf) (The Koran), where they would be
among their own kind. Flapping Eagle, the hero, is one of those chosen.
Power changes the men; Deggle steals a branch of the Stone Rose, Virgil is incapacitated by
Dimension Fever, and Grimus sets himself up on a mountain top as a kind of deity. The
inhabitants of Calf Island, rather than being inspired by their immortality, commit suicide or
become so obsessive that they are no longer sane.
Flapping Eagle, dissatisfied with seven hundred years of earth life, journeys to Calf Island. It
becomes apparent that Deggle's damaging of the Rose has caused a weakness in the very
foundations of the island which is manifested in blinks of time and space. It is Flapping
Eagle's duty, as the Grimus look-alike, to vanquish Grimus and become his son and
successor.
One of the major concepts introduced here, and pursued throughout his later works, is the
idea that participating in history signifies influencing history. Participating means recording,
telling or even just living, for all acts have the potential to be historical events. When Mr.
Jones is first introduced to Flapping Eagle, he does not know that he is "about to make his
rendezvous with a small historical event" (Rushdie, Grimus), for:

If he had known, he would have philosophized at length about the

parade of history, about the historian's inability to stand apart and
watch; it was erroneous, he would have said, to look upon oneself as an
Olympian chronicler; one was a member of the parade. An historian is
affected by the present events that eternally recreate the past (Rushdie,
Grimus 12).
This novel, unlike the others, is not set in a specific time period (true - some of The Satanic
Verses is set in a mythical past, but the main storyline takes place in modern day Britain), but
there are some clues that help to situate the story. Bird-Dog, Flapping Eagle's sister, takes her
name from a 'singing machine' that "sang about a creature called a bird-dog, clever, fiendish"
(Rushdie, Grimus 18). This is a reference to a 1950s song by the Everly Brothers. Flapping
Eagle tells us he has been alive for over seven hundred and seventy seven years, and that,
"Ali the people on the island ... seem to come from a time roughly contemporaneous with the
time 1 took the Elixir" (Rushdie, Grimus lOI). Flann Napoleon O'Toole, a resident of the
island, says to another who is avoiding a fight, '''Twoud be an act of true pacifism. For which
1 believe the Sanskrit word is Ahimsa. Mr Gandy himself'd be proud of you" (Rushdie,
Grimus 138). The 'Mr Gandy' mentioned here is of course the Mahatma Gandhi; thus the
story takes place at least some seven hundred years past the mid-1900's.
Immortality is topic of interest in the novel. Calf Island is the refuge of those immortals who
can no longer tolerate existence amongst mortals. Most reside in the town of K, with a few
living at the seashore and a few others, Grimus included, on the mountain. To survive within
their immortal states (they are capable of ending their lives by committing suicide that is
violent to the body), they all become obsessive about someone or thing. The object of their
obsession can be almost anything: love, hate, good deeds, revolution, or each other. One
citizen of K cushions himself with a protective layer of study. In normal Iife one never has
enough time to follow one's theories through to the end; here on Calf Island that is no longer
a problem. Ignatius Quasimodo (I.Q.) Gribb elucidates his interest:

Many years ago, he said, l became engrossed in the notion of

racememory: the sediment of highly concentrated knowledge that
passes down the ages, constantly being added to and subtracted from. It
struck me that the source-material of this body of knowledge must be
the stuff itself of philosophy (Rushdie, Grimus 160).

Grimus, the possessor of the Stone Rose, considers Iife o~ Calf Island a kind of laboratory
experiment:

This is the nature of Kaf: it is an attempt to understand human nature by freeing it

from its greatest instinctual drive, the need to preserve the species through
reproduction. The Elixir of Life is a beautifully two edged weapon, removing at a
stroke the possibility of reproduction by sterilizing Recipients, and also nullifying
the need to reproduce by conferring immortality. The island, furthermore, is
plentiful and fertile. Scarcity, too, has been removed. Ali of which necessitates a
profound change in human behaviour, a change which l believed would reveal our
true natures far more exactly. Il is a fine combination, sterile immortals and fertile
land. A most rewarding study.
Analysts of the mythical mountain of Kaf have called il a model for the structure and/or kings
of the human mind. Fitting, then, that the actual Mountain should be a structure created to
examine the interests (and enable the death) of one human mind (Rushdie, Grimus 292).
Flapping Eagle, the hero of the story, has to develop his own obsession in order to survive
immortality and the Grimus Effect. I.Q. Gribb describes Flapping Eagle's obsession as, "this
preoccupation with simplistic explanations of origin - which is all creation myths are-"
(Rushdie, Grimus 185) and exclaims that this type of study is valueless'.

Mythology and rebirth are two vital themes in Grimus. Mythological, as well as historical,
names are used in this novel and include Jocasta, of the Oedipus story which has become a
myth-like, Sisyphus who here counts rather than pushes stones, and Grimus himself, who
takes his name from, "a respect for the philosophy contained in the myth of the Simurg, the
myth of the Great Bird which contains all other birds and in turn is contained by them"
(Rushdie, Grimus 292). The Simurg is a creature from the Persian book of kings, the
Shahnamah by Firdausi (Zimmern 33-41). The bird discovers and nurtures into adulthood a
child that had been abandoned by his father due to his unnaturally white hair which gives the
appearance of age. The father and son are eventually reunited, with the son coming into his
rightful inheritance. The combination of age and youth within the story compliments the
perpetual youth yet old age of immortality on Calf Island. Also there is the idea of adoption,
and of heredity and inheritance.
History, narrative, obsession, experimentation with time - these are just some of the ideas
introduced in Grimus, Rushdie's first novel, and developed in greater detail In his subsequent
novels.

Historical Truth in Salman Rushdies Midnights

Children: A Question of Perspective

In the post-modern literary tradition, an absence of universal truth replaces prior notions of
one absolute truth, in terms of history as well as such notions as identity and society. Just as
postmodernism dismantles the concept of absolute truth, Linda Hutcheons concept of the
narcissistic narrative exemplifies the postmodern undermining of prior traditions: The
origins of the self-reflecting structure that governs many modern novels might well lie in that
parodic intent basic to the genre as it began in Don Quixote, an intent to unmask dead
conventions by challenging, by mirroring (18). Narcissistic narrative exhibits a narratorial
awareness that invites the reader to participate in stripping prior conventions and traditions.
Hutcheon argues that What narcissistic narrative does do in flaunting, in baring its fictional
and linguistic systems to the readers view, is to transform the process of making, of poiesis,
into part of the shared pleasure of reading. [] it is the human imaginative process that is
explicitly called into action, in both the author and the reader (20). Those novels that exhibit
characteristics of narcissistic narrative emphasize the creative process and do so with an
awareness of that process, breaking down old conventions and proposing replacements for
those conventions. Salman Rushdie writes at the moment when new theories of history
undermine recorded historical facts as the individuals sole tie to history (as evinced by
Collingwood, Foucault, and others). The need for a new way of looking at older historical
forms makes Midnights Children a prime candidate for analysis in terms of narcissistic
narrative, providing an example that explores new views of history. Ultimately, Saleem Sinai,
the narrator of Salman Rushdies Midnights Children, exemplifies narcissistic narrative,
inviting the reader to participate in creating and discovering an alternative to the typical
historical traditions of historical truth as merely recorded facts: memory and the process of
recalling memories produces individual histories that overlap some aspects of recorded
history yet remain unique, individual versions of history.
Rushdie employs the use of narcissistic narrative in undermining the concept of historical
truth as recorded fact. Hutcheon defines narcissistic narrative as the textual self-awareness
that pervades metafiction, or fiction that includes within itself commentary on its own
narrative and/or linguistic identity (1). For the purposes of this paper, the focus will be
confined to three aspects of narcissistic narrative: the self-aware narratorial style, the reader
participation invited by the text, and the new rules of literature invoked with the employment
of narcissistic narrative. The three-pronged significance of the selected points of narcissistic
narrative and the resulting explications of Midnights Children will demonstrate that Rushdie
undermines the conventional ideas of history and posits a multiplicity of histories that are
comprised of a chutnified mixture of memory and recorded fact.
Rushdies ability to undermine the notion of absolute historical truth as recorded fact gains
strength from Saleems awareness of being a self-aware narrator. Hutcheon classifies this
type of narcissistic narration as overt as opposed to the covert form, in which self-conscious
narration is more internalized and structural. Saleems narration in Midnights Children falls
into the category of overt, which Hutcheon defines as texts in which the self-consciousness
and self-reflection are clearly evident, usually explicitly thematized or even allegorized
within the fiction (23). Rushdies narration adheres to this form of self-aware narration as
Saleem, the narrator, continually draws attention to the act of writing. In fact, Saleem baldly
informs the reader of his self-aware narrative state. Using Padma as a tool used to
communicate this awareness to the audience, Saleem states that Padma has started getting
irritated whenever my narration becomes self-conscious, whenever, like an incompetent
puppeteer, I reveal the hands holding the strings [] (72). Saleem demonstrates awareness
of his narrative selfconsciousness and, in doing so, reflects the narcissism that permeates the
narrative of Midnights Children.

The narcissism of the text extends through the fictive world created by Rushdie and
encourages - in fact relies upon - the reader to participate in the creation of new ideas.
Hutcheon notes that, This productive labor is no longer the explicit subject of overt
teachings to the reader; the text now forces him to read with his imaginative and ordering
faculties alert and at work" (82). Narcissistic narratives not only engage the reader on the
level of plot and story but also force the reader to delve beyond the surface of the text, aiding
the author in discovering alternative forms to archaic absolute truths. Hutcheon attributes a
freedom to this manner of writing in which the author entreats his audience to join in the
process of interpreting and creating. For Rushdie, there is no question about intended reader
participation: Saleems invitation to the reader lacks subtly. He directly affirms that he
expects my audience to be capable of joining in; of imagining for themselves what I have
been unable to re-imagine [] (352). By directly addressing the audience, Rushdie uses
Saleem to implore the reader to accept an alternative to traditional notions of historical truth
and also to entreat the reader to explore those alternatives, as will be outlined further.

The following passage from Midnights Children captures not only Saleems self-
awareness of narcissistic narrative but also invokes one of the many intentional
errors in the text, bringing it to the foreground and imploring the reader to
situate this error in the realm of a reality created by human memory:

Reality is a question of perspective []. Re-reading my work, I have

discovered an error in chronology. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
occurs, in these pages, on the wrong date. But I cannot say, now, what
the actual sequence of events might have been; in my India, Gandhi will
continue to die at the wrong time. Does one error invalidate the entire
fabric? Am I so far gone, in my desperate need for meaning that Im
prepared to distort everything to re-write the whole history of my times
purely in order to place myself in a central role? Today, in my confusion, I
cant judge. Ill have to leave it to others.

Saleem invokes his own memory of events, Gandhis death in this instance, as a true and
valid account of his life regardless of that which is recorded as fact and is considered the one
true history. Thus, Rushdies narcissistic narration enables and invokes new rules of
literature to describe (while avoiding prescription) an alternate way of approaching history:
memory becomes a viable historical alternative to recorded fact. Michael Reder observes that
When Rushdie speaks of memory, he is speaking not of cultural memory or national
consciousness but of individual memory, [] the history in Midnights Children is seen
through the eyes of an individual: it is not the dominant, official History but a history that is
personalized and therefore given life, significance, and meaning (226). The individual nature
of history as highlighted by a narcissistic narration that relies on memory undermines
traditional forms of history as a unity of recorded fact.

In Origin and Originality in Rushdies Fiction, Martine Hennard Dutheil points to the central
idea of Midnights Children as the power of fiction to capture and invent a new reality (10).
In the afore-cited passage, Saleem reminds the reader that individual perception as created by
memory is an illusion that ultimately comprises a truth for that individual. In a discussion
between Gunter Grass and Salman Rushdie, Grass observes that We have many realities.
Our problem is that we dont accept that there are many realities (76). Both Rushdie and the
novel concur with Grass in questioning traditional beliefs about the reality of history and
memory, exemplary of narcissistic narrative, which also seeks to undermine traditional forms.
Rushdie presents this new reality as a reality created by memory, in which one holds on to
that which creates meaning. Re-imagining history fills in the gaps of a persons memory, in a
manner that may or may not concur with recorded fact. Saleem describes the inevitable gaps
and errors in memory and proceeds to re-imagine his history in a manner that provides
meaning to him. To emphasize this point, Rushdie enables Saleems narration to catalog the
history of Saleems grandparents through memories that cannot possibly exist due to his
forthcoming birth, 32 years in the future. In his narcissistic style of narrative, Saleem reminds
the reader that Most of what matters in your life takes place in your absence (282).
Although not present for the early lives of his grandparents, he remembers their life stories,
often by accessing his sense of smell (smell being the sense with the strongest link to
memory). Saleem consistently reminds the reader of the necessity of re-imagining history in
order to have a concept of ones own past and even re-imagines the points from which he was
absent.

Saleem consciously remarks on several of his historical errors to emphasize the re-
imagining of individual histories that comprise a new reality, which serves as an alternate to
historical fact. Rushdie himself likens the process of memory to archaeology in an interview
conducted by Jean Pierre Durix: because they [memories] were fragments of the past, they
became somehow much more powerful, as though they were bits of archaeological remains
one had discovered and from which one was trying to reconstruct what the vanished
civilization was like (12). By using narcissistic narrative to draw attention to discrepancies,
Rushdie points to the nature of memory as partial and incomplete: an individual remembers
that which provides the most meaning for that individual. From these glimpses, the individual
rebuilds his history to form a reality that is just as valid as that known as historical truth.
Rushdies use of overt narcissistic narrative calls traditional views of history into question
and proposes that memory creates individual perception: the extreme narratorial awareness
proposes rather than imposes. Further, the narcissistic narration presenting the idea of
memory as creating a new reality encourages the reader to participate in forming his own
conclusions rather than encouraging a blind acceptance of the presented conclusions.

In proposing memory as a method of creating a new reality of history for the individual as an
alternative to or elaboration of recorded fact, Rushdie does give limited credence to the use of
recorded fact. When comparing the process of creating history to archaeology, Rushdie notes
that fragments comprise memories. To have a concept of ones own past, one must be able to
reimagine that history from the available fragments of memories. However, by invoking
memory alongside recorded fact, Saleem re-imagines his past to compile a new reality from
fragments of memory. In relating the history of Bombay, Saleem acknowledges the
destruction of rice by the development of tenements and continues, conveying the historic
value of rice: But still, in the city, we are great rice eaters. Patna rice, Basmati, Kashmiri rice
travels to the metropolis daily; so the original, ur-rice has left its mark upon us all, and cannot
be said to have died in vain (107). Just as ur-rice leaves its mark on Bombay, ur-history the
historical truth of recorded fact leaves its mark on the new history of a new reality created
by perception and memory. By invoking ur-rice, Rushdie plays with language in a manner
similar to the way he plays with history, reality, and memory. He shows that something from
ur-history lives on in the new reality of individual perception; however, on the whole,
memory supercedes ur-history in this same new reality. The mixing of these two historical
modes finds symbolic expression in the many chutney jars Saleem has created and labeled at
the end of the novel. Here, Rushdie advocates a termination of the ideal, unified view of
history. Keith Wilson applauds this acknowledgement of partiality: When he [Saleem]
reviews the end-product of his dealings with the god of memory who has supported him, a
product lined up in the thirty yearly pickle-jars of his experience, he accepts with resignation
the partialness of his success [] (61). The partialness of memory leaks into individual
history, while the new reality remains a chutnified mixture of ur-history and memory, merged
through re-imagination and encouraged by narcissistic narrative. In this manner, Rushdie
shows that recorded fact functions for the individual as a point of reference rather than as an
absolute truth.

Through Saleem, Rushdie describes the necessity of accepting the partialness of memory.
While re-imagination aids the mixing of memory and ur-history, a strict adherence and
reliance to urhistory results in cracks. Saleem embarks on a desperate search for meaning as
he attempts to link his own history with that of the nation. As noted in the above passage,
Saleem wonders if he is prepared to distort everything to re-write the whole history of my
times purely in order to place myself in a central role? (198). In response to his declared
search for meaning against absurdity, Saleem actively and admittedly attempts to link himself
with the nation. Doing so results in cracking: an ultimate unity remains impossible. The
narrator fails to see what the story tells, which Reder articulates: Midnights Children is out
to show that history does have meaning; in fact, history has many meanings. For Rushdie,
history is individual, and historys meaning is determined by the present. The message is, to a
great extent, that history is not logical, it is not scientific or even objective but it still can have
meaning (240). By searching for one unified meaning rather than accepting a multiplicity of
meanings, Saleem physically cracks as Rushdie portrays the disintegration of one unified
historical viewpoint with a unity of meaning.

Rushdie further expounds on the disintegration of traditional forms in the way he creates a
narcissistic narrative that disintegrates from proper narrative qualities. His narrative
makes extensive use of uncommon forms of punctuation and also manipulates language,
creating new words. In a similar manner to narcissistic narratives ability to undermine
conventional forms, Rushdies literary style destabilizes the traditional use of language,
invoking new rules. In an interview conducted by Jean-Pierre Durix, Rushdie discusses this
manipulation of language: The way in which the English language is used in that book is
very striking; it showed me that it was possible to break up the language and put it back
together a different wayI found I had to punctuate it in a very peculiar way, to destroy the
natural rhythms of the English languageThat sort of thing just seemed to help to dislocate
the English and let others into it (10). Within the narcissistic narrative, Rushdies narrative
style undermines the traditional conventions of a unified history. The breaking of the
language emphasizes, at a textual level, the disintegration of Saleem as he strives to find
meaning from ur-history while partially struggling to meld memory with ur-history. Although
he demonstrates this mixture throughout the text, the narrator never fully reconciles himself
to the rift between individual history and ur-history. However, Rushdie characterizes Saleem
in this manner to posit the idea of a chutnified, multiplicity of history to the reader, leaving
the final analysis to that reader. Wilson confirms that Rushdie makes the meaning that
Saleem can only, frenetically, hope to find (59). Rushdies meaning arises from the
unconventional narrative style that consciously creates new rules of language and thereby
elevates Saleems failure to reconcile his chutnified mixture of history with ur-history. While
Saleems attempt to find meaning fails, the narratorial language addresses the audience and
provides this meaning through the reader, who represents a new generation that can choose to
apply this chutnification of history to their lives.

Rushdies narrative not only contains textual aberrations from typical narrative but also
houses oral narrative within the narcissistic narrative. The self-aware narrative process that
addresses the audience and creates new rules while undermining conventional forms reflects
the process of oral story telling. Rushdie acknowledges that Padma enabled the book to
become an oral narrative, some kind of stylization of such a narrative, if you like (Durix 14).
By creating a character who acts as a catalyzer for the telling, encouraging the continuation of
the tale and interacting with the teller of that tale, Rushdie allows Saleems narration to
embody qualities of the oral narrative. As with such a narrative style, Saleem often interrupts
his own story, addresses the reader, and speaks in circles before returning to his main point.
As Saleem tells the story, he constantly digresses when some element of his tale reminds him
of something else. At one point he rails against these digressions: Interruptions, nothing but
interruptions! The different parts of my somewhat complicated life refuse, with a wholly
unreasonable obstinacy, to stay neatly in their separate compartments (224). By
narcissistically pointing to the orality of the text, Saleem draws attention to that orality and
the nature of the narrative itself to emphasize the function of memory.

The elements of oral narrative overlap and work with the elements of narcissistic narrative
and simulate the function of memory in history: both the narrative style and memory
undermine traditional forms. Just as a persons memory jumps from one event to the next,
without chronological sequence in many cases, Rushdies narrative also leaps from one
memory to the next, often interrupting itself in order to make room for a certain memory.
Wilson also observes the narrative connection with memory, as elicited by the narcissistic and
oral elements of the narrative: Thus the reader/listener, deity of the narrators present to
whom he offers up narrative, has equal status with memory, the past out of which narrative is
made and to which the narrator also owes service if he is to have meaning (59). The shared
status of memory and narrative in Midnights Children indicates the significance of each
elements: both memory and oral, narcissistic narrative provide alternatives to the
conventional forms of literature and history. As the narrative style simulates the function of
memory, Rushdie exemplifies one of Hutcheons arguments in A Poetics of Postmodernism:
The important contemporary debate about the margins and the boundaries of social and
artistic conventions is also the result of a typically postmodern transgressing of previously
accepted limits (9). Rushdie transcends traditional limits in his use of narcissistic and oral
narrative. These artistic conventions not only relate a story but also mimic the function of
memory and thereby help redefine history as individual rather than a single historical
viewpoint shared by all. Focusing on memory throughout and through his narrative, Rushdie
undermines the conventional ideas of history and posits a multiplicity of histories that are
comprised of a chutnified mixture of ur-history and memory.

By communicating his tale with the use of oral narrative, the narrator tells the story in the
same manner in which history is told and written. Saleem reinforces the emphasis on
communication as he announces that As a people, we are obsessed with correspondences
(359). The correspondence between people, whether written or oral, involves distortions: no
single truth stands out (except, perhaps, the inevitability of multiple truths, which could in
and of itself comprise a unity of truth). Unavoidable distortion occurs due to the very process
of enmeshing facts in a framework of subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Even minute
differences between synonyms distort meaning and alter the manner in which this ur-history
of recorded facts is conveyed and received. Thus, history necessarily emphasizes certain
aspects over others by the manner in which a person communicates this history. Rushdie
dramatizes this point as Saleem relates that Mary heard all sorts of rumours and tittle-tattle,
which she relayed to me as matters of absolute fact (293). The rumours that Mary conveys
as fact illustrate the manner in which presentation of history and historical events receives
emphasis and coloring from the person relating the information. Different aspects gain
emphasis from different tellers; thus, history parallels the function of memory since a
persons memory grasps events that have a particular meaning or significance to that person.
Because of communication, history necessarily lacks objectivity and thus embraces
subjectivity, through which many versions of historical truth and many realities may be
accepted. Reder observes that Rushdie attacks the notion of the existence of objective
facts. History is ambiguous because reality is ambiguous. If Rushdie believes that our
everyday reality is built not upon fact but upon opinion, then by extension, the act of
creating history must be equally unreliable (227).

As noted by Reder, Rushdie portrays history as unreliable when one searches for a single
unified historical truth. To emphasize this point, Saleems narration is equally unreliable, a
point the narrator himself acknowledges at several instances. The most memorable of these
instances occurs when Saleem admits to lying: To tell the truth, I lied about Shivas death
(529). By perpetrating a bald falsification of the truth, Rushdie creates limits for the
working of memory as a creator of alternate realities that replace a unity of historical truth. In
this scene, his unreliability as a narrator emphasizes the need for a chutnified combination of
memory and ur history to create a viable alternative to ur-history alone. However, this limit
by no means undercuts his proposition for replacing conventional forms of history. On the
contrary, this unreliability serves to address the reader, shocking the audience into forming its
own views on history. In a Poetics of Postmodernism, Hutcheon expounds upon the
impossibility of narrative reliability: If the speaking subject is constituted in and by
language, s/he cannot be totally autonomous and in control of her or his own subjectivity, for
discourse is constrained by the rules of language and open to multiple connotations of
anonymous cultural codes (168). Hutcheon continues several pages later, voicing her
analysis of Rushdie and other authors of postmodern fiction: they make their readers
question their own (and by implication others) interpretations (180). The impossibility of
reliable narration encourages Rushdie to play with the conventional techniques of narrative,
providing a narcissistic narrative with elements of oral narrative that ultimately simulates the
function of memory and advocates memory in combination with ur-history as a manner of
undermining the traditional acceptance of and adherence to the traditional form of history
seen as historical fact.

In Imaginary Homelands, Rushdie articulates the utility of the necessarily unreliable narration
as mimicking memory: History is always ambiguous. Facts are hard to establish, and
capable of being given many meanings. [] The reading of Saleems unreliable narration
might be, I believe, a useful analogy for the way in which we all, every day, attempt to read
the world (25). As Rushdie notes, people read and internalize the world and its events in
different ways from one another, based on individual perspective. The truth-value of an
individuals perception of history retains a validity independent of the recorded facts of
history. Reder argues that truth is contained in the creative act []. After all, beyond the
cold, vacant truth preserved by the pure logic in philosophy and mathematics, truth is no
more than memory. Memory mimics the artistic process [] (240). The artistic process of
creating a narcissistic narrative that is necessarily unreliable both mimics the function of
memory and also comprises a truth in and of itself. Narcissistic, oral narratives such as
Saleems both utilize and mimic memory, conveying a historical account that proves to be
just as valid as the recorded history that it may (or may not) contradict. Rushdies text (as
interpreted by the reader and the readers participation) introduces a post-modern view of
truth that accepts multiple truths and realities as valid forms of history.

In Midnights Children, Rushdie undermines conventional forms of history, narrative, and

truth. The validity of memory as a truthful account of history is offered as an alternative to ur-
history. Rushdie presents a fragmented view of history that stems from the imperfect and
partial nature of memory, as evinced in Saleems narcissistic narration. The fragmentary
history gains emphasis from a narcissistic narration that mimics memory through its orality
and destabilizes not only language but also the idea of recorded history as the one true
history. Inviting the reader to participate in the discovery of alternative truths, the narration
exemplifies Hutcheons concept of the narcissistic narrative as it undermines conventional
forms and suggests memory and individual perception as a means of grasping a reality. The
individuals reality may differ from recorded historical reality yet remains valid. The limit of
the idea of alternate truths resides in memory and how one manipulates that memory. One
may choose to alter memory by the definition of others or one may retain that which provides
the most meaning to that person. Because memory is alterable, both inwardly and outwardly,
it is imperfect. Inwardly, one may misremember an event yet the sense of reality memory
gives to that false event makes it as valid as the recorded truth. Outwardly, one may alter
memory according to that recorded truth of ur-history. However, individual perception and
participation allows Saleem, as well as the individual, to accept that which makes the most
meaning to that person. Rushdie invites the reader to analyze the function of memory and the
definition of historical truth. In doing so, he concludes and encourages the reader to conclude
that It is memorys truth, he [Saleem] insists, and only a madman would prefer someone
elses version to his own (Imaginary 25).

Rushdie's concern about reality. truth and their misrepresentation by those in power is
apparent in his work. Although incorporating aspects of fantasy and magical realism, it is
realism that is the key clement. Reality to Rushdie is a fluid thing, not fixed; "Realism is not
an aesthetic idea. Realism is also a political idea. [t's also an imaginative idea" (Dharker 352).
Unlike some books whose world is too closed, where, "It doesn't seem to spill into the world
outside, the world doesn't seem to invade," he wishes to allow his writing to remain "slightly
more open at the edges" (Dharker 357). The interaction between reality, fiction, history,
fantasy, polities, fiction and nonfiction has a position in the world of Midnight's Children. It
is the role of writers to take a stand, to be political and to challenge that small group in
authority who control what is truth and reality. By creating alternate realities, and writing
alternate histories, you can provide other pictures of the world. Ultimately, Midnight's
Children does not provide solutions, but opens the door to endless possibilities.

Conclusion
This thesis has studied the fictional 1V0rks of Salman Rushdie, Grimus, Midnight's Children,
~and The Satanic Verses, concentrating on the use of fiction, myth and history in the
narrative. The goal of this study has been to explore Rushdie's use of these ideas in order to
rework existing histories and mythologies, and to allow for the surfacing of suppressed
stories, and the creation of new myths.

Grimus was Rushdie's first novel, and exists outside of the triptych that consists of Midnight's
Children, and The Satanic Verses. Grimus is a fantasy novel, and not set in any specific time
period. There are different realities and dimensions in Grimus, just as there are in the other
three novels. The use of language is very clever; puns and puzzles abound. Several ideas
suggested in this novel continue to be important in Rushdie's writing. These include the ideas
of rewriting history, the historian as a participant, and the development and re-development
of mythology. The use of parallel structure in Grimus, the circular movement and the
continuous rebirth and mutations of characters are all part of a pool of ideas that Rushdie
returns to again and again. He explores these issues in different ways in his other novels,
trying to create an atmosphere where reclamation of one's language, past and identity are
possible.

Midnight's Children is firmly grounded in the actual history of the post independent
subcontinent, and also in theories of history. Rushdie's utilization of an individual's story
connected to and contrasted with the larger story of India, allows him to explore some of the
ideas proposed in Grimus. Rushdie includes real historical events in the story, but often alters
the dates or other factors. There are several reasons behind this; one reason is that by altering
the facts the author is stressing the fictional aspect of the book. Another reason is to accent
Saleem's unreliability as a narrator, for he too alters and misreads history in order to fit his.
story and to accentuate his importance. A third reason is one pursued through the loose
trilogy, and it has to do with destroying the official version of the past. This gives those who
have been forgotten or misrepresented a chance to rewrite and thus reclaim their past.

Midnight's Children is firmly grounded in the actual history of the post independent
subcontinent, and also in theories of history. Rushdie's utilization of an individual's story
connected to and contrasted with the larger story of India, allows him to explore sorne of the
ideas proposed in Grimus. Rushdie includes real historical events in the story, but often alters
the dates or other factors. There are several reasons behind this; one reason is that by altering
the facts the author is stressing the fictional aspect of the book. Another reason is to accent
Saleem's unreliability as a narrator, for he too alters and misreads history in order to fit his
story and to accentuate his importance. A third reason is one pursued through the loose
trilogy, and it has to do with destroying the official version of the past this gives those who
have been forgotten or misrepresented a chance to rewrite and thus reclaim their past.

Rushdie experiments with the English language, infusing it with Indian words and
expressions, playing with sound and meaning, and generally pushing it to the limit and
beyond. Stretching and manipulating the language, reclaiming it as a valid Indian vehicle of
communication is one of the themes evolved in the novels. Rushdie with his masterpiece,
"Midnight's Children has ratified the right to use Indian English as a language" (Sethi 136).
He wants to decolonize the language, to take the power of naming and creating away from
the former masters, the British, and to return it to its rightful owners, the citizens.
Rushdie, like his character Saleem, may be handcuffed to history, but it is a history of his
own creation, full of gaps and crevices through which other Interpretations and manipulations
of the past can leak, creating as Saleem describes, "a state of affairs which is nothing short of
revolutionary; and its effect on history is bound to be pretty damn startling" (Rushdie,
Midnight's Children 237).

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