Postmodernism in "Midnight's Children"

Paper Summary:

This paper deals with the aspects of postmodernism in Salman Rushdie's novel "Midnight's Children". It is an overview and a critic of the major postmodernist features of the book, most specifically fragmentation, division, and intertextuality.

From the Paper:

"Maybe the most emphasized division in Midnight's Children is the fragmentation of the body. Indeed, throughout the novel, poor Saleem is submitted to a wave of mutilation on his own self. First he loses a portion of his hair, then one of his fingers is cut-off, his nose is taken care of by a surgeon in order to stop the leaks, and finally Saleem is emasculated by the Prime Minister. At some point, we can almost picture him as a frightening scarecrow. All these features convey the impotence of the narrator. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Burroughs, William, Naked Lunch (Harper Perennial, 2005)
• Burton, Richard F., Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights (Random House, 2004)
• Eliot, T.S., The Waste Land and Other Poems (Penguin, 2003)
• Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
• Pound, Ezra, The Cantos (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1999)

More papers on Postmodernism in "Midnight's Children":

• Book Review # 67370 : "Hybridity in "Midnight's Children"
• Essay # 72490 : "Obesity In Minority Children"
• Poem Review # 117100 : "In Clouds Descending, In Midnight Sleep"

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