Salman Rushdie

Born 19 June 1947, Bombay, India. Full name Ahmad Salman Rushdie. Indo-British novelist and essayist.

Rushdie was educated in India and in England. After he had studied history, he was an advertising copywriter.

Rushdie won around 30 prizes and titles with his work in Sweden, Italy, USA, Austria, India, and Great Britain. His first novel Grimus (1975) was unsuccessful, though. With his second novel Midnight's Children (1981), he won the Booker Prize in 1984, and the Booker of Bookers in 1993. With The Satanic Verses (1988), he won the Whitbread Prize in 1988.

His work deals with religious and intercultural topics, and his best work is always politically controversial. His work deals with contemporary and historical India and Pakistan, and with Western cities with large populations drawn from parts of the world which emerged from Western imperial conquest, what makes Rushdie not only a postmodernist, but also a postcolonialist.

Most critics accept that Salman Rushdie is a postmodern writer, although it is hard to find a category for the complexity of design in the novels. His works, especially his novels, are a playful acknowledgement of the power of popular culture to engage and move the people. The casual invention of parallel worlds in space and time and the debt to Bollywood film techniques indicate the postmodern character. His works help us understand the major cultural shifts of the last 50 years. Rushdie raises uncomfortable issues about identity in a fast-changing world without steady values. That is why he got into big trouble in the late 1980's when he had offended many Indians and Pakistani due to the politically controversial topics in Midnight's Children, Shame (1983), and The Satanic Verses.

In addition to that, The Satanic Verses offended Muslims (and Christians), who called the book blasphemous and arranged book burning events. Furthermore, Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at that time, proclaimed a fatwā condoning and actively approving of a possible execution of the author on 14 February 1989.

Bibliography

Blake, Andrew. Salman Rushdie: A Beginner’s Guide. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2001.

Cundy, Catherine. Salman Rushdie. Manchester: MUP, 1996.