Masarykova univerzita

Filozofick fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Bakalsk diplomov prce

2006 Eva Kroupov

 Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts

Department of
English and American
Studies

English Language and Literature

Eva Kroupov

The Elements of Magic Realism in

Some Works by Salman Rushdie

B.A. Major Thesis

Superviser: Doc. Mgr. Milada Frankov, Csc. M.A.

2006

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 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

..
Authors signature

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 Acknowledgement (optional page)
I would like to thank

Table of Contents

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1. Introduction 6

2. Development of the term Magic Realism 7

2.1. Magic Realism as a Postmodern Device 10

3. The Phenomenon of Salman Rushdie 12

4. The Three Novels 14

4.1. Midnights Children Individual versus Nation 14

4.2. Shame Fiction versus Reality 22

4.3. The Satanic Verses Fall and Metamorphosis 28

5. Conclusion 38

6. Bibliography 40

1. Introduction

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 In my thesis I will be dealing with the occurrence of magic-realist elements in

three novels by Salman Rushdie. Rushdie is an extraordinary author, not only for his

original style of writing but also for the difficulties he had to go through. After publishing

his fourth novel The Satanic Verses he was condemned to death by Islamic leader

Ayatollah Khomeini. For several years Rushdie had to live in hiding and only a few years

ago he was freed from his destiny.

This thesis focuses on Rushdies work from the literary perspective. It will trace

the common and less common features of magic realism that appear in his works in view

of the fact that Rushdie is categorized as a postmodern author. Magic realism emerges at

the beginning of the 20th century but its revival is apparent in the 80s with authors that are

considered postmodern because of their decentralization. They are either from places

other than Europe or the United States or are marginalized because of gender or race. Due

to his Indian origin and then being British citizen, Rushdie could rank among these

authors, although he has never been marginalized as the author since his works were a

great success. He uses magic realism to erase the boundaries between West and East

(centre and margin) or criticise the migrants status in foreign society.

The aim of my thesis is to introduce the elements of magic realism which are

typical of Rushdies writing and which occur in all three novels. I will also examine the

function and purpose of inserting these features in the novels and investigate if their

function is common in all three works. In the second chapter I will briefly introduce the

development of magic realism and its main features that appear in most of the magic-

realist texts. In the subsequent subchapter I will put magic realism in the context of

postmodern literature. Its function is different in postmodernism and therefore some of the

elements are different. In the third chapter I will introduce the background Rushdie comes

from. In this instance the authors background is very important because it highly

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influenced his work. He puts a lot of autobiographical components and experience in his

novels. Then I will in short present the three novels examined. I have chosen exactly these

three (Midnights Children, Shame, Satanic Verses) because they create a sort of trilogy,

that means that they all include magic-realist elements and deal with the problems of

individuals somehow standing on the crossroad between two worlds (western and eastern).

This chapter is followed by the actual analysis of the three novels in chronological order.

Each of these novels deals with different problems of distinct characters but the overall

theme is very similar. In each novel there are presented both worlds and cultures and the

clash between them. More importantly, the emphasis is put on the eastern culture in a

sense that the heroes do not forget their origin and even if confronted with a different

world-view they try to preserve the traditions (that are connected with the magical).

In his novels Rushdie depicts the world he comes from as a place full of

mythology and legends where everything is possible; but at the same time he is able to

criticise this world from the western-experience point of view. For that reason the reader

of his works can sense some kind of hyperbole or burlesque in his writing. It must be

stated that there are many viewpoints to look at Rushdies work.

2. Development of the Term Magic Realism

In this chapter I would like to introduce the history of the term magic realism. In

her study Zzran relno Magick realismus (Marvelous Real Magic Realism) Eva

Lukavsk at the beginning presents a brief survey of the development of the term and its

spread in Spanish-speaking countries. The term magic realism was coined by German art

critic Franz Roh in his book Nach-Expressionismus. Magischer Realismus. Probleme der

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neuesten europaeischen Malerei (Post-Expressionism. Magic Realism. Problems of New

European Painting). The term was initially only used in the art of painting in Germany.

This term was used for the type of painting that was also called new or ideal realism.

According to Roh, the works of magic realism go deeper under the surface of reality and

reveal the miracle of being. Magic realism tries to find a point where the real and the

ideal mingle.

In 1927 Rohs essay was translated into Spanish and published by Jose Ortega y

Gasset and thus the term magic realism spread to the Hispanic environment. In 1948

Arturo Uslar Pietri introduced the term in his collection of essays Letras y hombres de

Venezuela (Literature and Famous Figures of Venezuela) as a term used for a certain type

of Hispano-American narrative prose. The term was broadly spread in Latin America in

1955 when a study Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction by professor Angelo

Flores was published. As the most illustrative example of magic realism he presents the

work of Franz Kafka and as the beginning of magic realism in Latin America he considers

the book Historia universal de la infamia (A Universal History of Infamy) by Jorge Luise

Borges from 1935.

Another important contributor to the development of the term was Luis Leal. In

1967 he wrote a study El realismo mgico en la literatura hispanoamericana (Magic

Realism in Spanish-American Literature) where he articulated his comments or

objections against Floress conception of magic realism and he also attached some

important facts about the history of the term. Leal did not approve of Flores concept of a

mixture of reality and fantasy and defines magic realism as an attitude to reality that

leads to a more profound recognition of the world and allows to grasp the mystery that is

hidden beyond reality (Lukavsk 14). The difference between these two scholars is

evident in their conception of the term. Flores sees the magic realism as a fantasy or

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science fiction literature. For Leal, the magic-realistic author par excellence was Alejo

Carpentier; for Flores it was Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges (Lukavska 12-23).

The most famous and important magic-realist author in the Hispanic

environment is definitely Gabriel Garcia Mrquez. He is considered to be a member of the

generation of authors following Borges. For Mrquez the magic was the most accurate

mode of representing reality (Simpkins 148). Despite the magical events in his novel One

Hundred Years of Solitude, he claims that he was able to write [...] simply by looking at

reality, our reality [...] (qtd. in Simpkins 149).

Mrquez is also the probable source or model for the postmodern writers

employing the features of magic realism (and thus being categorized as magic-realist

authors) in their novels. According to Wendy B. Faris, who wrote several essays about

magic realism in postmodernism, the group of these authors include Milan Kundera,

Salman Rushdie, Carlos Fuentes, D.M. Thomas, Toni Morrison and many others. Faris

argues that these authors use some distinct elements of magic realism that are

characteristic of postmodern writing (Zamora 167). I will focus on the problem of

postmodernism and magic realism in the next chapter.

Now, I would like to briefly introduce the term magic realism itself. Basically,

magic realism combines realism and the magic (or fantastic) in a way that the magical

elements and miracles rise naturally from the reality portrayed (Zamora 163). I will not

introduce all the characteristics of magic-realist fiction in this chapter but I will present

them in the course of my thesis in connection with the particular problems. Still, I will

mention some of the basic elements that apply to the majority of magic-realist texts. One

of the main features is the presence of a fantastical element which cannot be explained

according to our knowledge of the world, but the magical things really do happen. The

characters mostly accept these things without questioning. Another point is that the magic-

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realist events exists in the gap between two worlds the real and the magic; these two

worlds are often represented by the worlds of the dead and the living. Therefore in almost

all the magic-realist texts there appear ghosts and the living are in contact with them. This

notion has connection with another element and that is the use of legends and folklore.

The last characteristic I will mention is the altered perception of time, space and identity

(Wikipedia; Zamora 167-177).

The purpose of using magic realism in writing prose differs from author to

author. For the decentralized authors (including Rushdie) it serves as a device to present

their opinions on the mainstream culture and politics. At the same time it helps to

demonstrate the distance between the centre and and the margin (between the West and the

East in the case of Rushdie).

2.1. Magic Realism as a Postmodern Device

To understand Rushdies work we must class him as a postmodernist and the

author from elsewhere. Most of the authors who write in English but are from foreign

origin are not included in the canon of English literature. Even though Salman Rushdie

comes from India, he is incorporated in this canon. At the same time he is considered a

postmodernist and post-colonial author, since postmodernism shares concerns with those

who, because of class, race, gender, or sexual preferences, are other than, and have been

marginalized by, the dominant tradition (Lee XI). We can see that almost all of Rushdies

heroes come from India, which was for many years under British control. These

marginalized heroes are always somehow confronted with the mainstream culture and the

clash between western and eastern cultures (or reality and magic, respectively) is best

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depicted by the use of magic realism. By this comparison of the two approaches to life and

two ways of thinking, Magic Realism serves to avoid privileging a Western perspective

above the Eastern view [...] because in the Eastern world miracles do happen, and reality

is magic (Seminck 33).

The term postmodernism originated in the 1930s in Latin America thanks to the

critic Federico de Onis and later was reused throughout the 40s and 50s in Europe and the

United States. As well as the magic realism, the term postmodernism has gained wide

recognition and acceptance particularly in the 1980s in which it has come to stand for a

general movement in the arts, and even in forms of behaviour and daily life (Zamora 192-

193). Even though the postmodernism is said to deal with the problems of race, gender and

the somewhat marginalized heroes in general, in the beginning it was almost completely

dominated by authors who where white and male (Bertens ). However, since the early

1980s the term applies also to authors from other countries than Europe or the United

States, e.g. Australia, South Africa, India and others. These are the reasons why Salman

Rushdie ranks among the postmodern writers.

Theo L. Dhaen in his study on magic realism and postmodernism introduces

several features that mark postmodernism; these are for instance metafiction, discontinuity,

intertextuality, parody, the erasure of boundaries, and the destabilization of the reader

(Zamora 194). I have chosen these features because I think they also represent the magic

realism (as used in postmodernism). It could be said that between postmodernism and

magic realism there is established a hierarchical relation (Zamora 194). It follows that

magic realism is concerned with problems that are central to postmodern literature. For

example, Dhaen introduces Richard Todds essay that deals with Rushdies Shame. He

sees this novel as achieving its magic realist programme by way of the very same

techniques usually singled out as marking postmodernism (Zamora 194).

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 As was mentioned before, magic realism as a postmodern device wants to erase

the boundaries between privileged West and marginalized East. At the same time it can also

function as a sign of the otherness of non-Western society (Zamora 198). The otherness

in this case is meant as something to be proud of. Nevertheless, magic realism in

postmodern literature is largly used to criticise the established order in different spheres of

public life.

I would like to conclude this chapter with an answer by Salman Rushdie when he

was asked about the impact of postmodernism (and magic realism likewise) on his writing:

If you arrive in a society as a migrant, your position is automatically a dislocated one, and

so you have to work out a literary mode which can allow that kind of conflict of

descriptions to take place in it (qtd. in Sandhu).

3. The Phenomenon of Salman Rushdie

For a better understanding of Salman Rushdies work it is important to know

from what background the author comes. In the case of Rushdie, this is more than

important because all his works have an evident connection to the place he was born. Most

of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent and depicts the life of its inhabitants either

in their home country or in the western world the two areas where Rushdie has lived,

respectively.

Salman Rushdie was born on June 19, 1947 in Bombay, India to a Muslim

family. The Rushdie family was relatively tolerated in Hindu Bombay and thus decided

not to move to the officially Muslim Pakistan after the partition of India. At the age of

thirteen, he was sent to study in England first at the Rugby School and later at Kings

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 College at Cambridge. After graduation in 1968 he returned home; this time not to

Bombay but to Karachi in Pakistan where his family moved in 1964. By 1970 Rushdie

began with professional writing. His career started with Grimus, a fantastic tale, which

was generally neglected by the readers as well as literary critics. His next novel,

Midnight's Children, published in 1980, was a huge critical and commercial success. In

1993 this work was awarded the 'Booker of Bookers'1 prize. After this success, in 1983

Rushdie wrote a short novel, Shame, where he depicts the political disorder in Pakistan.

Both these works (and also The Satanic Verses later) are characterised by, apart from the

style of magic realism, the immigrant perspective of which Rushdie is very conscious.

During the work on his most controversial book The Satanic Verses, Rushdie was

invited to attend the seventh anniversary celebration of the Nicaraguan revolution. After

the trip he wrote a travel narrative The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987). In

1988 followed the publication of The Satanic Verses which caused the well-known fatwa

(see. Chapter 4.3.). Even though he was under such strenuous circumstances, he continued

to write ficiton. In 1990 he published a childrens tale Haroun and the Sea Stories and in

1995 another novel which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize The Moors Last Sight.

His latest works focus more on the life in Western world, e.g. The Ground Beneath Her

Feet (1999) and Fury (2001). His newest book Shalimar the Clown (2005) was a finalist

for the Whitbread Book Awards.

He is also the author of several collections of essays, among them are the

Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 (1991) and Step Across This

Line: Collected Non-fiction 1992-2002 (2002). (Wikipedia; Brennan)2

3. The Three Novels

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

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 For my thesis I have chosen the early three novels by Salman Rushdie:

Midnights Children (1981), Shame (1983) and The Satanic Verses (1988). These three

novels are sometimes said to create a trilogy. Of course it is not a trilogy in the sense that

the plots of individual novels follow each other and neither the characters are the same. It

is rather a group of novels that have common themes and deal with similar topics.

Certainly, one of the factor that unites these three books is the use of magic

realism. By applying the elements of magic realism, Rushdie mainly deals with the

problem of migrants and ones identity. In all these novels the main hero or heroes move

from their homeland somewhere else where they are considered foreigners and at the same

time they must learn how to deal with that situation. Rather than looking at the theme from

a political perspective Rushdie views it from the human point of view. Yet we cannot say

that Ruhdie completely avoids politics because he does not. Nevertheless, the politics in

his novels is not central and he himself stresses that he is more devoted to the examination

of his characters experience in the world (Appignanesi 8-9).

4.1. Midnights Children Individual versus Nation

I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained

to those of my country (Rushdie 1995-I, 9).

The first novel that meant success for its author was Midnights Children

published in 1981. In the story of Saleem Sinai whose life is linked with the history of

independent India, Rushdie indicates a sort of an autobiographical narrative. Although he

claims in many interviews that his heroes are not autobiographical, Saleem Sinai was born

in 1947, which is not only the year of the beginning of the independent India but also of

Rushdies birth.

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 Of the three novels, this is the only one in which there is only one main hero.

However, as in his other works, Rushdie presents the background from which the hero

comes two generations back. Saleem Sinai was born on the stroke of midnight on the 15th

of August 1947, the same moment India became independent. From the very beginning he

is inseperably connected with the nations history. His fate is sealed and from literary point

of view foreshadowed when Jawaharlal Nehru sends him a letter: [...] You are the newest

bearer of that ancient face of India which is also eternally young. We shall be watching

over your life with the closest attention; it will be, in a sense, the mirror of our own

(Rushdie 1995-I, 122). It seems as if the government itself decided the fate of the

midnights children (children that were born the same moment as Saleem) and Saleems in

particular. Later, the simile of the newest bearer of that ancient face of India becomes

reality. While at school, a teacher finds out that Saleems face resembles the map of India:

[...] thees is human geography! How sir where sir what sir? Zagallo is laughing now.

You dont see? he guffaws. In the face of thees ugly ape you dont see the whole map of

India?[...] See here the Deccan peninsula hanging down! Again ouchmynose

(Rushdie 1995-I, 231). This literalization of metaphor or linguistic nature of experience

(Zamora 176) is very common in postmodern magic-realist texts and therefore the work of

Rushdie is no exception. He uses this element also in his other works that I am dealing

with. In his letter, Nehru also mentions mirror. This symbol is often used in magic-realist

texts, it creates a magic of shifting references (Zamora 177). In this case Saleems future

life is foregrounded by this letter and by using the word mirror in particular as his life

mirrors the life of India. Then, Saleem is linked to the nations history not only mentally

but also physically. Saleem himself is very much aware of his status: I was linked to

history both literally and metaphorically, both actively and passively [...] (Rushdie 1995-

I, 238). In this statement, the hero as narrator of his story, reveals several layers of the

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narration that take place in this novel. These could involve the level of reality

metaphorical link to history as well as the level of fiction or fantasy literal link. It is

obvious that in the magic-realist texts these layers overlap and what is meant in one layer

metaphorically in the other could become literal. This is the case of the expressions used

to describe Saleems (and other midnights children) relationship to the nation the

children are fathered by history (Rushdie 1995-I, 118) and Saleem is handcuffed to

history (420). These metaphors became literally true since the midnights children are

strongly connected to the historical events of India and cannot break up the bonds.

At the age of ten, Saleem realizes that he has the ability of telepathy. He is able

to communicate in his head with other children born in the same night. He finds out that

all the midnights children have some supernatural ability. They can travel in time,

perform magic, transform themselves and many other unbelievable powers. These

miracles are recounted quite naturally, without any surprise or doubt. Even Saleem

becomes very quickly reconciled with his powers and begins to take advantage of them.

He organizes the conference of midnights children inside his head. All the children

pariticipate and take theirs and Saleems powers as absolutely normal. In magic-realist

texts, the magic really happens. According to the summary of magic-realist elements

wonders are recounted largely without comment, in a matter-of-fact way, accepted as a

child would accept them, without undue questioning or reflection (Zamora 177). In the

place when magic mingles with reality everything is possible and nobody wonders.

I think that the main layer of narration is Saleems connection with the nations

events. When something happens in the political situation of India, Saleem is conscious of

being somehow indirectly responsible for it. While visiting his uncle who prepares an

uprising, Saleem is participating in the planning; they rehearse the rebellion with

moving pepperpots on the table. And later on when it succeeds, Saleem comes to realize

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that he is responsible for it. What began, active-metaphorically, with pepperpots, ended

then; not only did I ovethrow a government I also consigned a president to exile

(Rushdie 1995-I, 291). According to Wendy B. Faris one of the elements that means magic

is a disruption of the ordinary logic of cause and effect (Zamora 168). As an example of

this she points out Saleems claim that he caused several historical events by e.g. moving

pepperpots on a table (Zamora 168). The reader can be sceptical to these propositions

because they reverse the logic of reality, but that is precisely the point of magic realism -

the logic of the story is not the same as the logic we know from reality. Rushdie probably

uses this kind of magic-realist device to comment on political situation because he

explains what happened by inserting a magic producer of these events into his story.

Wendy B. Faris introduces as one of the elements of magic-realism the idea that the texts

try to take a position that is antibureaucratic (Zamora 179) and therefore they use the

magic against the political or social situation. In Midnights Children it is clearly Rushdies

criticism against the government of Indira Gandhi. He describes the fantastical midnights

childrens congress as an alternative to the Congress Party (Zamora 179). By inserting

magic into reality the author tries to avoid being attacked for criticising the politics of the

nation and at the same time he tries to somehow free his narrative from realism, from

something that is given and required of a novel. Wendy B. Faris desrcibes this as a

critique of totalitarian discourses of all kinds (Zamora 180). To the problem of reversed

logic I would like to add a similar topic that is associated with magic realism. Some of

these fictions question received ideas about time, space, and identity (Zamora 173). This

feature is not very common in Midnights Children but I think there is one moment

concerning time that could be considered magical. At the end of the novel Saleems son

was born on another very important day of Indias history. Rushdie delineates his birth in

the same style and even uses the same words as when Saleem was born. It could be

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interpreted as if the narrator was returning to the beginning of his story and thus the time

in his narration becomes cyclical. He also names his son after his own father Aadam.

These two aspects seem to return the story telling to its beginning.

For most of the novel, Saleems connection with the nations history is more

metaphorical than literal, he more often fabricates his actions that cause the events to

happen. The third part of the book is different. The Book Three introduces Saleem as an

adult man in the course of the war. This part could be interpreted as the real or literal link

to the nations history when Saleem actively participates in the forming of history. Yet, in

this last part Saleem has changed; not only does he actively take part in the war but also

his mind has somehow changed. The author refers to him as Saleem or buddha and the

point of view changes within one paragraph from the first person narration (I Saleem) to

the third (he buddha) (Rushdie 1995-I, 377). It seems as if he was living in two worlds;

in the real world after the war there lives Saleem and as a narrator recounts the story

from the present time and in the fictious (magical) world there lives buddha (probably

named after Buddha because of his supernatural abilities). As a narrator he recollects the

events from different perspectives because as he says reality is a question of perspective;

the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems but as you

approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible (Rushdie 1995-I,

165). This quotation implies that we can only guess whether the events the narrator speaks

of really happened to Saleem or if they seem incredible because they happened to buddha.

I must not forget another important duality that take place in this novel. This duality is in

Rushdies prose represented by the opposite characters, the main protagonists have their

alter-egos. In this novel the opposite of Saleem is Shiva, his evil almost-brother. They

are like two sides of one coin inseperable from their birth to death. (I will comment more

on this topic in the next chapter).

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 The position of the narrator in this novel is very remarkable. He very often enters

the story since he in fact describes his own life. Metafiction is common in postmodern

magic-realistic texts, these texts provide commentaries on themselves (Zamora 175).

Saleem recounts his story while he is writing it in his house and his housemaid Padma

makes commentaries on his style and content of writing and also on the pace: At this

rate, Padma complains, youll be two hundred years old before you manage to tell about

your birth (Rushdie 1995-I, 38). In fact, she is the one who creates the metafictional

dimension of the novel by standing in for the reader. As far as writing fiction is

concerned, Rushdie employes another magic-realist feature which was already mentioned

and this is the metaphor being made real. He assimilates writing a novel to making

chutney. Saleem owns a pickle factory, that produces chutney and writing a novel is for

him as responsible a task as producing chutney: To pickle is to give immortality [...].

There are also my special blends [of chutney] [...] I am able to include memories, dreams,

ideas [...] (Rushdie 1995-I, 460). To make the metaphor real, to literalize its meaning,

Rushdie lets Saleem to really produce twenty-six pickle-jars identified with labels that

bear the names of all the chapters in the novel.

As was mentioned before, sometimes the reader is left uncertain about the events

that happened in the war. This notion of uncertainity is quite common in this novel. The

narrator several times reveals that he is not sure when some historical events happened and

even admits that he made several mistakes concerning the dates. And then it occurs to me

that I have made another error that the election of 1957 took place before, and not after,

my tenth birthday [...] but my memory refuses [...] to alter the sequence of events

(Rushdie 1995-I, 222). In an essay Rushdie discloses that he has chosen to insert into the

story remembered truth rather than literal truth (qtd. in Ghosh-Schellhorn). Thus, the

important thing for Rushdie as well as for magic realism in general is what people believe

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to happen not the real truth. In other words, even the incredible occurrences can be

true if people believe in them.

In the last part of this chapter I would like to focus on the ordinary magic that

appears in most of the magic-realist texts. This magic and miracles are very much

connected with people and folklore in general. Even though magic realism has tended to

concentrate on rural settings (Zamora 182), Midnights Children are set in a city and

magic happens. Among the magic that falls into the local lore and the ancient system of

belief are ghosts, superstitions and supernatural abilities. Ghosts are very common in

magic realism since they unite the two worlds of life and death and thus they serve to

enlarge the space of intersection where magically real fictions exist (Zamora 178). The

people who have seen a ghost have usually some secret that they want to hide and the

ghosts represent their guilty conscience. The tradition of the existence of ghosts is very

strong in this environment and people sometimes see ghosts everywhere. They primarily

have confidence in the mythology and legends and then they think logically. In this novel

this occurs when the soldiers encounter smugglers but at first they think they see ghosts

(Rushdie 1995-I, 336). To this powerful belief in myths, Rushdie (via Saleems voice)

says: Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts (Rushdie

1995-I, 47).

As for the superstitions they also belong to the tradition. Although ghosts could

be seen by almost everybody, superstitions are the matter of (according to this novel)

children and servants and Reverend Mother (Saleems grandmother who is slightly crazy).

[...] it was true that the Brass Monkey was as much animal as human; and, as all the

servants and children on Methwolds Estate knew, she had the gift of talking to birds, and

to cats (Rushdie 1995-I, 151). Children and servants are not considered mature enough

people and therefore tend to believe in everything. In the case of Reverend Mother she

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was superstitious in the true sense of the word. She did not approve of photographs and

planes and other inventions that she was not able to comprehend. [...] aeroplanes were

inventions of the devil, and that cameras could steal your soul, and that ghosts were as

obvious a part of reality as Paradise [...] (Rushdie 1995-I, 100).

The supernatural abilities were already mentioned in connection with the

midnights children. There are oher references to magic powers of different people. For

instance there is a man called Hummingbird whose humming has the ability of inducing

erection in anyone within his vicinity (Rushdie 1995-I, 46). Or there is a painter whose

paintings had grown larger and larger as he tried to get the whole of life into his art. Look

at me, he said before he killed himself, I wanted to be a miniaturist and Ive got

elephantiasis instead (Rushdie 1995-I, 48). This quotations denote the basic elements of

magic realism something that in real life is unbelievable but what in the world of magic-

realist fiction is a commonplace and needs no explanation. The second instance

(elephantiasis) could be defined as another feature of magic realism (though very much

connected with the basic one) which is exaggeration and abundance (Zamora 338). The

author is not satisfied only with ordinary magic he needs to magnify it to distinguish

himself from other authors and especially from realism.

To show that even magic has its boundaries and cannot happen to absolutely

everybody, Rushdie uses hyperbole in describing some of the magic occurrences. When

Amina Sinai (Saleems mother) goes to a seer to foretell her future, she sees him levitate

above the ground. But when she looks closer, she realizes that Ramram the seer was not

really floating in midair, six inches above the ground. [Aminas] eyes focused; and she

noticed the little shelf, protruding from the wall (Rushdie 1995-I, 86). Even though this

revelation of miracle is funny, it can also be interpreted otherwise. This episode can

metaphorically demonstrate that the reality we see depends on the angle we are looking at

21
it. From one angle the magic can seem more true than reality, but when we look at it from

a different angle, the real reality prevails.

In the end I would like to mention the style of the book. I was already speaking

about the metafictional dimension of it and now I would like to concentrate on the style of

writing. There are passages that can be described as adopting the carnivalesque spirit

(Zamora 184) a notion also typical of magic-realist texts. It means that language is used

extravagantly, expending its resources beyond its referential needs (Zamora 184).

Sometimes the form imitates the content when midnights children enter Saleems head,

they speak all at once and this passage copies the flow of their speeches (Rushdie 1995-I,

170), there is no punctuation or division to paragraphs. In result the content of the passage

is difficult to follow as it is with the voices in Saleems head. Rushdie also uses a lot of

different styles that are mostly imitations of Indian culture. As Wendy B. Faris says

Midnights Children is perhaps the most carnivalesque of all, in its conscious adoption of

the style of a Bombay talkie a cast of thousands [midnights children], songs, dances

[...] (Zamora 185).

4.2. Shame Fiction versus Reality

The country in this story is not Pakistan, or not quite. There are two countries,
real and fictional, occupying the same space, or almost the same space. My story, my
fictional country exist, like myself, at a slight angle to reality. I have found this off-centring
to be necessary; but its value is, of course, open to debate. My view is that I am not writing
only about Pakistan (Rushdie 1995-II, 29).

Rushdies third novel (but second to be appreciated by readers and critics) Shame

was brought out in 1983. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and expected to win but it

did not. It is not a well-known fact that this book was also (as well as The Satanic Verses

later) banned in Pakistan for its religious issues. It can be said that Shame is a political

novel comparing the real situation in Pakistan with a fictional country with obvious

22
connections to reality. It is usually described as a satire and political allegory targeting

Pakistans ruling classes (Brennan).

In this novel the use of magic realism is very evident and significant. Rushdie is

careful in criticizing the political situation and that is why he does not do it

straightforwardly but rather invents a fictional state. While claiming that he is writing a

story about a fictional country he can put in it magic and miracles because they are

believed to happen in such a kind of place. The author often enters the story to explain why

is he writing a fantasy and not a realistic novel. It seems that he does it to confirm the idea

that he is really not writing about Pakistan. He supports his assertion by logical reasoning

there would not be any magical events in a realistic novel but rather ordinary things

concerning real people. If this were a realistic novel about Pakistan, I would not be

writing about Bilquis and the wind; I would be talking about my youngest sister. Who is

twenty-two, and studying engineering in Karachi [...] (Rushdie 1995-II, 68).

As far as magic realism is concerned, there is again the idea (as in Midnights

Children) that many of the [magic-realistic] texts take a position that is antibureaucratic,

and so they often use their magic against the established social order (Zamora 179). This

is exactly the case of Shame where Rushdie is criticizing the ruling power of Pakistan. On

the other hand, I would not say that this novel is only about politics. As Rushdies other

novels, it depicts a detailed history of two families and the magic and miracles connected

with them. As the title suggests the main theme or notion is shame in all its different forms.

At first sight it seems that the embodiment of shame into a mentally affected girl Sufiya

Zinobia has nothing in common with the political situation of a nation. In fact, shame or

sharam, a quality only loosely translatable as shame or moral consciousness (Gosh-

Schellhorn), is very much linked to Pakistan (according to Rushdie).

23
 I would say that from the magic-realist point of view the personification of the

shame related to the family history is more important since the miracles and magic often

happen to quite ordinary people (living rather in a rural setting than in the city). The

conception of shame is omnipresent throughout the whole story. Essentially, the shame in

itself is ever-present also in real life. Whenever I turn, there is something of which to be

ashamed. But shame is like everything else; live with it for long enough and it becomes

part of the furniture (Rushdie 1995-II, 28). At the beginning, the shame appears in quite a

real situation. Bilquis (the future mother of Sufiya) is running along the street naked and

later is rescued by her future husband Raza Hyder. From that point she cannot dispose of

the thought of shame for all her life. Therefore when she gave birth to a daughter who is

retarded, Bilquis is not able to put up with it and somehow shifts all her shame to Sufyia.

Literally speaking she gets rid of her responsibility. Literality is an important notion as far

as magic realism is concerned. The magic is often inherent in the literalization of metaphor;

when the metaphor is made real, the magic mingles with the reality (Zamora 176). And

thus Sufyia Zinobia carries the burden of her familys and in general of the nations shame.

This personification expresses itself in the form of Sufyias excessive blushing. Even at the

moment she was born she blushed. The blushing itself would not be very interesting,

because that happens in real life quite often. In magic realism the real as we know it may

be made to seem amazing or even ridiculous (Zamora 168). That is why the instance of

excessive blushing is even further exaggerated [] the ancient lady bent to kiss the girls

and was alarmed to find that her lips had been mildly burned by a sudden rush of heat to

Sufyia Zinobias cheek. [] complained on her first day that when she gave Sufyia

Zinobia a bath the water had scalded her hands, having been brought close to boiling point

by a red flame of embarrassement [] (Rushdie 1995-II, 121). The blushing was so

extreme because the shame was so immense. The personified shame took on her all the

24
 vices of her family and thereby her strenght became supernatural and she is able to kill

people. Subsequently, her parents realize what they did to her and are afraid of her and

begin to avoid her (as they do with their own shame). [] nobodys hands were clean.

They were all accomplices in the matter of Sufyia Zinobia; and the secret was kept

(Rushdie 1995-II, 237).

In this novel there are more magic-realist features than only the personification of

the shame. Some of them are very interesting and narrated in a matter-of-fact way by the

reason that magic and miracles occur matter-of-factly without any unnecessary

commentary. At the same time the magic is comical and smart. In Shame there is for

example a man, who had the ability of speaking in capital letters (Rushdie 1995-II, 49).

Nobody is surprised by his competence and the author presents it as if it was the most

normal thing in the world. It is just a description of one mans nature. That is probably the

reason why this ability is not further specified or explained it is not essential for the story

and also nothing to be surprised of. There are more instances of this as if realistic magic.

Its role is not as significant as in the case of the personification of shame that goes

throughout the whole novel. But yet these petty miracles compose the compact portrait of

the place and time.

Among the everyday magic3 there are other situations that leave the reader in

doubt whether this can really happen and why. Mostly it depends on the culture from which

the reader comes since in different cultures the same things are differently perceived.

Generally speaking narrators of magic realism play confidence tricks on their readers

(Zamora 235). They want the reader to believe in everything they claim to happen in their

fictious world; that the natural order of things can be subverted in the world of her or his

fiction (Zamora 235). The authors (or author in this case) achieve this trickery on the

3
in the world of the novel.

25
 reader by inserting extraordinary incidents into an otherwise real4 story. In this novel there

is one extraordinary event that surprised me and it is the incident of multiple pregnancy.

Year after year the sister of Sufyia called Good News gave birth to children whose number

was higher every year. Good News gave birth to fine, healthy twin sons []. Exactly one

year later she became a mother again; this time she produced triplets. [] Five more []

turned up one year later to the day. [] and that next year there would be nine, and after

that ten, and so on, so that by her thirtieth birthday she would have given birth to no fewer

than seventy-seven children (Rushdie 1995-II, 206, 226). The image of multiple

pregnancy as well as other surreal accidents has been quite common in magic-realist texts

since its beginning. The famous magic-realist author Gabriel Garca Mrquez employed

this kind of magic quite often in his novels and Rushdie is sometimes said to be very much

influenced by Mrquezs writing.

An interesting element of this novel and in fact one of the connecting points of

the three novels in question is duality. As we could see in Midnights Children Saleems

alter-ego Saleems was the evil Shiva. And as we will see in the chapter about The Satanic

Verses this duality is even more obvious in the case of Gibreel and Saladin. In Shame the

opposition is not as evident as in the other novels army general Raza Hyder and civilian

politician Iskander Harrappa. This duality of characters has its origin in mythology and

religion; there has always been antagonism between good and evil. Magic realism is very

much connected with a nations mythology and religion. Most of the miracles (ghosts,

metamorphoses) come from the mythology and tradition. On the duality of characters that

represent two sides of one coin good and evil inseparable Rushdie quite openly satirizes

the society and politics of a nation. Openly in the sense that he of course uses the features

of magic realism and the characters mentioned are only based on the real people.

4
By real I mean that it is believable

26
 As well as in Midnights Children also in Shame there is apparent the image of

mirrors. In the texts of magic realist authors they usually represents the division between

two worlds, the magical realist vision exists at the intersection of two worlds, at an

imaginary point inside a double-sided mirror that reflects in both directions (Zamora 172).

These two worlds can be either real and magic or the world of the dead and the

living. Both these different worlds are represented by mirrors in magic realism. The

image of mirrors (broken or unbroken) is repeated several times in the novel, since

repetition [...] in conjunction with mirrors [...] creates a magic of shifting references

(Zamora 177). In Shame looking into a mirror symbolizes mostly looking in ones past as

well as looking into the other world. When she heard this Bilquis set her lips in a tight

and bloodless smile, and her eyes stared ferociously through the mirror on the wall which

divided her from the empires of her past (Rushdie 1995-II, 92).

Interestingly, there are several miracles and magic that appear in all three novels

examined. These are mainly the miracles that are very unreal and can only emerge in the

works of magic realism or fairy tales. Dreams, ghosts, angles and devils are included in all

three novels. The dreams are very vivid and contain events and accidents that would be

otherwise unbelievable. In Shame Sufyia imagines in her dream the metamorphoses of her

nanny and her husband into fishes. There is also the angel-devil relationship and

metamorphosis into an angel themes that are essential to The Satanic Verses and

figuratively appear in Midnights Children. In Shame Omars brother who lives in the

mountains with the guerillas turned into an angel before he died. [...] their bearded

comrades skin had begun to give off a yellow light; the little buds of new wings were

visible on his shoulders. It was transformation familiar to the denizens of the Impossible

Mountains (Rushdie 1995-II, 132). This quotation shows that the metamorphosis was

quite an ordinary event for the countrymen. Even for the three mothers (another magic-

27
 realist element) of Omar and his brother it was nothing to be surprised of. They as if

expected it to happen that way and at the end they say to Omar: Your brothers father

was an archangel, Chhunni Shakil whispered at his bedside, so the boy was too good for

this world. But you, your maker was a devil out of hell (Rushdie 1995-II, 278). This

depicts the allegory of the angel-devil relationship and also another instance of the duality

mentioned above.

Shame is probably the most political novel of the three, still at the same time it is

probably the best example of the main feature of magic realism the mingling of reality

and fiction (or magic). Rushdie artfully reflects the real political situation in Pakistan by

creating a fictional country of his own where all the miracles and magic can definitely

happen.

4.3. The Satanic Verses Fall and Metamorphosis

Fictions were walking around wherever he went, Gibreel reflected, fictions

masquerading as real human beings (Rushdie 1992, 192).

The novel The Satanic Verses was published in the United Kingdom in 1988.

What followed its publication is a well-known issue - a few months after, the book was

banned in India and subsequently in other Islamic countries. Finally, in February 1989,

Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran proclaimed a fatwa5 on Salman Rushdie (Appignanesi IX). I

do not want to deal with the problem of fatwa and thus I will not neither present the

different views on it nor the development of it. I would like to look at the novel from the

literary point of view.

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)

28
 One of its main themes is the problem of immigration and the clash between

Western and Eastern culture in general. As far as the theme is concerned, The Satanic

Verses together with Midnights Children and Shame creates a kind of trilogy focused on

the mixing of East and West (Seminck 7). If there is a comparison between the two

worlds in Rushdies novels, the elements of magic realism are usually employed to show

these differences. The author himself stresses that his novel is about a clash of languages

or cultures in general and his attempt was to write about migrants from India to Britain.

Ironically, the people who could recognize their faith in it, rejected and subsequentely

burned the novel (Appignanesi 75).

Rushdies novel begins with two Muslim men (Gibreel Farishta and Saladin

Chamcha) falling from the sky after the plane they were on explodes. During their fall,

they as if take for the first time the roles they will be carrying through the whole story.

[...] but for whatever reason, the two men, Gibreelsaladin Farishtachamcha, condemned

to this endless but also ending angeldevilish fall, did not become aware of the moment at

which the processes of their transmutation began (Rushdie 1992, 5). From the beginning

they are predestined to be inseparable in their ways and lives one becomes devil, the

other angel two sides of one coin.

The metaphor of a fall from the sky is often commonly interpreted as an

unexpected and unprepared entrance to a new environment (either psychical or physical).

In this novel the fall and entrance really take place; what is impossible in realism is not

only feasible but also realized in magic realism. As one of the postmodern elements of

magic realism is literalization of metaphors, we can consider this fall as an instance of it.

As was already mentioned in the previous chapters, the magic happens when a metaphor is

made real (Zamora 176). Thus, in this novel the fall is made real and the characters are

thrown down to survive and change their lives by entering a new life. To be born again,

29
 sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To

land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly (Rushdie 1992, 3). The fall is also

associated with the metamorphosis change of peoples essence. Higher Powers had

taken an interest, it should have been obvious to them both, and such Powers (I am, of

course, speaking of myself) have a mischievous, almost a wanton attitude to tumbling

flies. And another thing, lets be clear: great falls change people (Rushdie 1992, 133).

The author reveals here that he is not only the creator of the characters destiny but also

the one who decides what is true. He is the Higher Power (as he claims) that dictates the

direction of the story and creates the reality of his own world. And it is only up to the

reader whether he will believe in what the author is proposing or not.

As suggested before, the main magic-realist elements in this novel are fall and

metamorphosis (transformation). These two notions are considered magic in the sense that

they occur suddenly, without previous warning and the people concerned are unprepared

and have no time to cope with them properly. This does not mean that they are surprised or

even jolted by the situation. They are reconciled with their destiny but as I already

mentioned, they are not prepared properly for the new situation (entering a new life in a

foreign country) and that could be one of the explanations for their change. Each of them

looks at their fall from a different point of view. This perspective could predestine their

new lives, but the highest power in the story is the narrator and he has the uppermost

decision. The reader can only speculate why he has chosen the roles he has. I know the

truth, obviously. I watched the whole thing [...]. Im making no claims at present, but I can

manage this much, I hope. Chamcha willed it and Farishta did what was willed (Rushdie

1992, 10).

The use of metamorphosis is perceived as the power of racist definitions of the

Other6, as experienced by the Third World immigrant community in the United Kingdom
6
The immigrants, or the people not of English origin in general.

30
(Zamora 351). This is clearly shown when Chamcha is admitted into a hospital where he

meets other people transformed into animals (for instance a manticore). Chamcha asks the

manticore how it is possible that so many people are metamorphosed and subsequentely

finds out that the native inhabitans of England (non-immigrants) are responsible for it.

But how do they do it? Chamcha wanted to know. They describe us, the other

whispered solemnly. Thats all. They have the power of description, and we succumb to

the pictures they construct (Rushdie 1992, 168). It follows, that the immigrants as Other

are in reality defined and described in terms of degrading and animalistic racist

stereotypes (Zamora 351). The actual metamorphosis into a devil (Saladin Chamcha) or a

manticore then seems to be another instance of the case when a metaphor gains its literal

meaning.

What amazes the reader most is the notion that the books characters show an

acceptance of the magic that takes place in the real world. Chamchas own metamorphosis

into a pop mythology devil (horns, cloven hooves, and enlarged phallus) is not seen by the

police who are taking him away as anything extraordinary (Zamora 352). It seems that

Saladin himself (or perhaps together with the reader) is the only character that is surprised

by his transformation. What puzzled Chamcha was that a circumstance which struck him

as utterly bewildering and unprecedented that is, his metamorphosis into the supernatural

imp was being treated by the others as if it were the most banal and familiar matter they

could imagine (Rushdie 1992, 158). This clearly supports the view that immigrants are

generally considered as inferior animals. Even though this idea of immigrants or foreigners

as animals or devils is rather exaggerated, Rushdie wants to direct the attention to the

problem of racism and xenophobia. The device he regards as the most effective is the

magic-realistic use of metaphor and conflict between reality and fiction. Therefore

Rushdie consciously exploits and even enhances the tension between the texts evident

31
 fictionality and the readers knowledge that it does deal with real-life entities all the same

(Seminck 30).

Not only does Saladin undergoe the metamorphosis into a goat but also Gibreel is

changed even though not as markedly as Chamcha. At the beginning (after their fall) it is

not clear whether he has somehow changed or not. Anyway his future metamorphosis

(which is more mental than physical) is foreshadowed shortly after their landing on the

earth. [...] that a pale, golden light was emanating from the direction of the man in the

smoking jacket, was in fact streaming soflty outwards from a point immediately behind his

head (Rushdie 1992, 142). There seems to be a halo around his head. Saladin was

transshaped into a goat-like devil and this metamorphosis is highly visible, though almost

nobody is surprised. On the other hand, Gibreels transmutation developes throughout the

whole novel and is treated more as a case of schizophrenia. Nobody believes him when he

claims he is the Archangel Gibreel or the Avenging Angle later on. He is possessed by the

need to help other people but he fails.

Gibreel leaned forward, grasped the kas face between his hands, and kissed it
firmly upon the mouth, for the spirit that it kissed by an archangel regains, at once, its lost
sense of direction, [...] The lost soul, however, had a most surprising reaction [...] Sod
you, it shouted, I may be desperate, mate, but Im not that desperate, after which, [...] it
struck the Archangel of the Lord a resounding blow upon the nose [...]. (Rushdie 1992,
323)

Without any doubt, this passage is very funny, but at the same time it could be

seen as another example of mingling of the two notions of magic and reality. Magic is

represented by Gibreel, who behaves and thinks as if he was the Archangel; but he

encounters the reality the inhabitants of London who have no understanding for miracles,

since they are very rational. The problem with this interpretation7 is that it could be applied

only on Gibreels case, not on Chamchas, who as a devil is viewed by the people as if he

has always looked that way.

7
The metaphor being literalized

32
 One of the interpretations of Gibreels mental transformation explains, that

Gibreels real problems only begin when his dreamworld leaks into reality, so that he

starts behaving as if he were the archangel of his dreams (Seminck 37). It is necessary to

say that Gibreels dreams comprise half of the novel. The world of his dreams looks like a

mythological world but at the same time quite real. In The Satanic Verses dreams and

visions has its place since these concepts are evidently among the elements of magic

realism; I will deal with the problem of dreams later.

Now, I would like to focus on the main question that arises when both

metamorphoses are mentioned. Why did Saladin become devil and Gibreel angel

(archangel)? Primarily, these characters should express the true personalities of these two

men. But is it really so? From what we have learnt from the beginning of the story, Saladin

is the better character. Even though he is not on speaking terms with his father (who is in

India anyway), to other people he behaves politely. To the contrary, Gibreel is spoiled, rude

and shows great disrespect to people around him. It seems that their roles are miscasted. As

I have mentioned before, the only power that decides is the Higher Power the author in

this case8. But even to the author, the characters and their relationship were not very easy to

handle at first. He says: I had thought that the devil-angel relationship would be

straightforward. What I found was that my view of them changed radically. And it was

when I came to see how the emotional lives of these two characters connected that I began

to know how to write the book. But it took ages (Appignanesi 8). The reader is faced with

a similar problem as the author he is left to his own interpretations of the angel-devil

relationship. Only almost at the end of the book the division of roles is explained by the

narrator. Gibreel [...] has wished to remain, [...] continuous that is, joined to and arising

from his past; [...] he fears above all things the altered states in which his dreams leak into,

[...] his waking self, making him that angelic Gibreel he has no desire to be; - so that his is
8
The author becomes textualized literally (magically) transported into the world of text (Zamora 235).

33
still a self which, [...],we may describe as true (Rushdie 1992, 427). Gibreels

transmutation could be thus interpreted as deserved status in both senses of the word.

According to this quotation, Gibreel did not forget his past and remained tied to his roots

(even though he lost his faith). He had no desire to change his self and forget his origin. He

is in essence a true character and deserves to become angel (which suggests also his name

Farishta means angel). On the other hand, he does not want to be an archangel he

cannot deal with this fate and therefore becomes confused and even schizophrenic. And

since he rejected his faith he cannot explain the miracle of metamorphosis that happened to

him. He also left his homeland where the miracles could be probably explainable thanks to

the rich mythology. He is neither proper Indian nor proper Englishman, he is somewhere

between; between the real and the magic.

The terror of losing his mind to a paradox, of being unmade by what he no

longer believed existed, of turning in his madness into the avatar of a chimerical
archangel, was so big in him that it was impossible to look at it for long; yet how else was
he to account for the miracles, metamorphoses and apparitions of recent days? Its A, Im
off my head, or B, baba, somebody went and changed the rules. (Rushdie 1992, 189)

Gibreels opposite Saladin Chamcha considers himself a genuine Englishman.

He studied in England, lives there and wants to live as long as possible. He abandons his

home country and forgets it immediately.

[...] whereas Saladin Chamcha is a creature of selected discontinuities, a willing

re-invention; his preffered revolt against history being what makes him, in our chosen
idiom false?...- While Gibreel, to follow the logic of our established terminology, is to be
considered good by virtue of wishing to remain,..., at bottom an untranslated man.
(Rushdie 427)

However polite and unspoiled Saladin was at the beginning, it is clear that the

predestination to look like a devil had to change him. He revenges himself on Gibreel for

what he had done to him after their landing in England. Gibreel handed Saladin over to the

police and that was the beginning of Saladins troubles. As Gibreel acts as the archangel

he forgave Saladin everything and yet saves his life.

34
 Yet my intention was to present the magic-realistic element of metamorphosis not

to analyze the complicated relationships between the two main characters. For that reason I

will now concentrate on other characteristics regarding magic realism.

One of the important elements in this novel is the presence of dreams. They create

a great part of the plot. Gibreels dream goes through the whole novel and comprises

independent chapters. In the works of magic realism the use of a frame story is quite usual.

In most cases the frame story is explained as a dream. The visions or dreams used in an

individual story signifies that these dreams must be very vivid and real-like because they

must work independently of the main storyline (Wikipedia). Their plot is set in a fictional

city of Jahilia where miracles and mythology are a commonplace. At first Gibreel is aware

of the fact that it is only a dream, but suddenly he takes part in it, which he is not able to

comprehend and becomes puzzled. And eventually dream becomes reality, and Gibreel

Farishta believes that he has become the archangel Gabriel in order to save London from

apocalyptic destruction (Zamora 356). The world of magic and the real world are mixed

again; this time inside the head of Gibreel but with the consequences in the outer world.

Not only Gibreel has strange dreams, also Saladins dreams are important though not as

vivid as Gibreels. He is dreaming about a little boy riding a bicycle. Later on, while

walking in a park he sees the scene from his dream. Saladin gives great significance to

this synchronous coincidence of a real scene and a dream scene (Zamora 364). Again, the

magic world of dreams becomes mingled with the world of reality. What increases the

magical substance of this dream is the discovery that also another male character has the

same dream Jumpi Joshi. Interestingly, he is a man with whom Saladins girlfriend lives.

When speaking of dream, we must not avoid the magical events that take place

inside the dreams. These events usually take up the form of a detail that appears repeatedly

thoughout the story. The best magical realist fiction entices us with entrancing-magic-

35
details, the magical nature of those details is a clear departure from realism (Zamora 169).

In connection with The Satanic Verses several theoretic studies mention glass as one of

these details. First it appears in Saladins dream during the flight to England. [he had]

been visited in a dream by a bizzare stranger, a man with a glass skin, [...] (Rushdie 1992,

33). The man in his dream begs to be released from his imprisonement, for that reason

Chamcha picked up a stone and began to batter the glass (Rushdie 1992, 34). Instead of

being released the man starts to bleed and scream. At this point Chamcha wakes up to find

out that he again lost his British accent and speaks in a Bombay accent. Later, this dream

again becomes reality when after the fall Chamcha lands on the coast and all his body

[was] cased in a fine skin of ice, smooth as glass, like a bad dream come true (Rushdie

1992, 131). Third important mentioning of glass skin is in the hospital. There is a woman

with glass skin and one of the patients explains to Chamcha: And the bastards smashed it

up for her. Now she cant even walk to the toilet (Rushdie 1992, 169). Michael Cody in

his study in The Explicator interprets the notion of glass skin from the immigrant

perspective. The woman, like Saladin, came to England with the vision of becoming (and

already being) English. The fragile vision now is of the glass that her new countrymen

shatter by making her see herself as they see her: an immigrant (Cody). This interpretation

applies also to Chamcha, who at first feels like an Englishman and that is the reason why

he smashes the mans glass skin (in his dream). After that he loses the British accent and

becomes also an immigrant which is evident in his own glass-like skin after the fall.

Most of the magical events and details occur in somebodys dreams. It is natural

since the dream is something that happens in ones subconscious. Thus the magic there is

more straightforward and easily understandable. Wonders are recounted largely without

comment, in a matter-of-fact way, accepted as a child would accept them (Zamora 177).

In the fictious city of Jahilia there appears a girl Ayesha who is surrounded by thousands

36
and thousands of butterflies. Their presence originates in a myth about their sudden

disappearance after the death of a holy woman who died at the age of two hundred and

forty-two and their re-appearance one hundred and one year after their departure (Rushdie

1992, 217). Now they encircle the girl (who claims to be a prophetess) and serve as her

clothes. The myth and their present service are a sufficient proof for the people to believe

her, since the butterflies are a sign that she does have connections with another world, that

she really is a visionary (Seminck 35).

At the end of this chapter I must not forget one of the most obvious elements of

magic realism the ghosts. Almost in every magical realist fiction there appears at least

one ghost. They are the figures that live in the gap between two worlds the world of the

dead and the world of the living. At the same time they belong to the local lore and

mythology. In The Satanic Verses a ghost of Rekha Merchant (Gibreels ex-lover) pursues

him wherever he goes (in England). She could be explained as the personification of

Gibreels unresolved past. She killed herself because he left her and now she wants to

revenge herself. What do you want,he burst out, whats your business with me? To

watch you fall, she instantly replied (Rushdie 1992, 200).

In The Satanic Verses the magic realism is omnipresent. Although not always

explicit in the plot (since some scenes are purely realistic), the reader is aware of its

presence owing to imperceptible references to miracles and other magical happenings.

[...] the surrealism of the newspapers, in which butterflies could fly into young girls

mouths, asking to be consumed, and children were born with no faces [...] (Rushdie 1992,

24). It shows that the magic has its place in otherwise realistic space.

Rushdie claims that The Satanic Verses was the least political novel [he] had

ever written, a novel whose engine was not public affairs but other kinds of more personal

and cultural crisis (Brennan). We can only guess if he claimed this in the reaction on the

37
 fatwa or if he really wrote a personal declaration without any political intentions. If only

for the reason that his novel deals with the problem of immigrants in general9, some people

may consider it as a political book, I think he accurately depicted the immigrants

experience in the new country. While the main theme is migration, the author cannot

entirely avoid some political attitude.

5. Conclusion

This thesis was examining some of the elements of magic realism that appear in

three novels by Salman Rushdie Midnights 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 Midnights Children it is the strong bond between a nation and an

individual which causes the main heros supernatural abilities. Shame presents the

magical shifting of ones 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 readers 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, Midnights Children). However far they emigrated, they all

have to deal with the same issues, they are strangers in the new country. Thus, Rushdie

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

38
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 Rushdies quotation:

A book is a version of the world. If you dont like it, ignore it; or offer your own

version in return.

6. Bibliography:

39
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