Shades of Postcolonialism: Magical Realism in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981)

Abstract

Over the past few years, Magical Realism has flourished in world literature and has become the fashionable style for prominent authors in crafting their novels. One of them is the Indian author Salman Rushdie, who has mostly succeeded in incorporating Magical Realism in his novels. This study aims to show aspects of Postcolonialism as mirrored through Magical Realism, demonstrating the multiple faces of Colonialism as they impacted the Indian society in Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children (1981). Three chapters build up this work. The first one, under the title “Magical Realism and its Peripherals,” deals with the meaning, origins, leading thinkers, and features of Magical Realism. The second one, titled “Literary Quintessential Manifestations of Magical Realism,” displays the essential themes, techniques, and the various novels that presented Magical Realism. The final one, labelled “Magical-Realist Figures of Postcolonialism in Midnight’s Children (1981),” provides a look into the narrative of the novel and a number of the features of Magical Realism that reflect Postcolonialism in the novel