Salman Rushdie

“Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella”

&

The Midnight’s Children

Outline

General Introduction: Rushdie and Rushdie in our class

His definition of migrant identity and the themes of Indian diaspora

Colonialism and Gender/Power Struggle General Introduction to Midnight’s

Children

Salman Rushdie: General Introduction: His life

1947 born in Bombay, son of a Cambridge-educated merchant of Muslim background;

1961 Studied in England 1964 moved with his

family from Bombay to Pakistan

1989, Feb. "fatwa"

Salman Rushdie: General Introduction (2): his work

1975: Grimus; 1987: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan

Journey; 1990: Haroun and the Sea of Stories 1980: Midnight's Children 1983: Shame 1989: The Satanic Verses 1991: Imaginary Homelands 1994: East, West 1995: The Moor's Last Sigh 1999: The Ground Beneath her Feet

India trilogy

Rushdie’s Position in our Class

“The Empire Writes Back” – in dual language (parody, revision, etc.), from multiple positions. E.g.“Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella“

His Migrant Position (the country of origin becomes a baggage, an “imaginary homeland.”)

His description of India’s Independence and Bombay; government corruption & the crowd

Salman Rushdie: Major Concerns

From India’s National Identity vs. British colonization

Indian diaspora migrant identity

Rushdie: migrant identity

What is the best thing about migrant peoples and seceded nations? I think it is their hopefulness... And what is the worst thing? It is the emptiness of one's luggage....We have floated upwards from history, from memory, from Time. (70-71)

“It maybe be argued that the past is a country from which we have all migrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity. . . .”

Rushdie: Pakistan & migrant writer--for your reference only

Although I have known Pakistan for a long time, I have never lived there for longer than six months at a stretch...I have learned Pakistan by slices...however I choose to write about over-there, I am forced to reflect that in fragments of broken mirrors...I must reconcile myself to the inevitability of the missing bits. ...

Immigrant writer: "the ability to see at once from inside and out is a great thing, a piece of good fortune which the indigenous writer cannot enjoy." (4)

Colonialism & Gender/Power Struggle

•The Discovery of America, Jan van der Straet, 1575 --the new world as a woman

Amerigo Vespucci

Colonialism & Gender/Power Struggle

For reference: Michel de Certeau, in The Writing of History, writes:An inaugural scene: after a moment of stupor . . . the

conqueror will write the body of the other and trace there his own history. . . . Jan Van der Straet’s staging of the disembarkment surely depicts Vespucci’s surprise as he faces this world, the first to grasp clearly that she is a nuova terra not yet existing on maps—an unknown body destined to bear the name . . . of its inventor. But what is really initiated here is a colonization of the body by the discourse of power. (xxv) (source)

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella of

Spain Consummate Their Relationship

History of Colonialism (1): Columbus --

The Images of Columbus in history:

1. a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero,

--discovered the New World; opened up the Americas to European settlement.

-- accomplished the four voyages, -- brought great material profit to Spain and

to other European countries.

The Images of Columbus in history (2)

2. a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur,

3. a ruthless and greedy imperialist.

--”encountered” but not “discovered” Americas;

-- enslaved indigenous people and caused slave trade;

-- brought along some diseases to Americas.

History of Colonialism : Columbus (3)

3. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (p. 110)

– she “an absolute monarch,”

-- he, “an absolute zero.”

Is this description true? Does it matter whether the description of Isabella is true or not?

Isabella and Ferdinand

Isabella I, portrait by an unknown artist; in the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain.

They united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain's entry into the modern period of imperial expansion.

a marriage of political opportunism, followed by the couple’s continued separation and conflicts.

He, a hero who conquored a lot of lands, and a man with some mistresses.

Image and info source

Reasons for Sponsoring Columbus “Columbus' appeal to Queen Isabella to finance his

planned voyage to the East by sailing west in 1486 was originally turned down. departure in 1492

Then she suddenly changed her mind. . . . it was what the keeper of her private purse told her of "History's Greatest Bargain". To finance Columbus' enterprise would cost no more than a week's royal entertainment for a visiting dignitary.”

Reasons for Sponsoring Columbus Conditions: (Mutual profit)

-- he conquers some of the islands and mainland for Spain.

-- given the title of "Admiral of All the Ocean Seas," and receive one-tenth of the riches that came from any of his discoveries.

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella of Spain: Structure

I. C & I seen by the two speakers; II. A third-person description of the I’s

treatment of C. 1. C as a secret lover and a sex toy; p. 109 2. C as a slave (in pigsty and body-washing) 3. Columbus’ reactions: possibilities 110-111

III. The two’s description of I; IV. Departure (p. 114- ) , A Dream and a

dream of a dream

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella of Spain: Structure

Questions: How are the two presented? Why does Queen Isabella play with Columbus? What

could be the reasons and what are the reasons Columbus thinks of? Why does Columbus want “consumation”? How is the story a satire of

colonialism? Why does Rushdie choose to describe Isabella, but not

Ferdinand?

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella:

How is the story a satire of colonialism?

The image of Columbus: coarse and flattering p. 107; a drunkard 108-109 adventure as his meaning of life 112

Queen Isabella an absoluate monarch, a tyrant, p. 110-11 gallops around. P. 111-12; her appetites Her uncertainties the descriptions of her

bodily parts p. 113

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella:

How is the story a satire of colonialism?

The two dreams C’s dream -- a vision p. 116 not be satisfied by the

known savage dream -- 117 Are these dreams true of not? the ending

The two speakers and their roles Their attitudes towards foreigners 108 Their description of the queen Their function as messengers at the end

Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabella:

How is the story a satire of colonialism?

The narrator’s tone: repetition of lines and words; e.g. ‘Consummation,’ Columbus’ hopes (107); money & patronage//love 112; 115; “must must must” 116

The meaning of consummation: 117 The motivation for colonialism: escapes

meaninglessness, go beyond the boring known world.

Midnight’s Children

Plot: Exactly at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, two boys are born in a Bombay hospital, where they are switched by a nurse. Around that time, a thousand children were born and they are the “midnight children.”

Aziz + Naseem

SaleemHindu woman+

British colonialist

Muslim couple(Mumtaz+ Ahmed)

Shiva

Midnight’s Children: Plot (2)

Midnight Children as a national allegory

from cultural conflicts and national movements in the colonial period

to the “birth” of the nation as well as its 3000 midnight’s children

to the gradual fragmentation of Saleem’s body, the children, and the nation

Midnight’s Children: narrative methods (for your reference) The narrator and narrative methods (p. 3)

Digressive, foreboding and summarizing. Talking about his own writings. A mixture of tones: humorous, poetic, crude and

with ribald jokes (e.g. snot) Mixing the personal and the historical/political Motifs -- e.g. hole in the nose, perforated sheet, p.

13 -

Midnight’s Children: Cultural Identity e.g. grandfather Aziz

Aziz

His mother

Indian belief German

knowledge

Boatman Tai

His wifeGhani’s house

Midnight’s Children: Kashmire

references

Encyclopedia Britannica: Christopher Columbus

Celebrate! Holidays In The U.S.A.: Columbus Day

Queen Isabella I of Spain: Queen Isabella I of Spain