Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2020, 3(11); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2020.031109.
Yunou Liu
School of Humanities, Zhejiang University Zijin-gang Campus, Hangzhou, China
The colonial culture often exerts a long-lasting impact on its colonized people, and their generations find it hard to negotiate their dual cultural identities. The protagonist in the novel and the Hindu mythological characters are related to each other in some degree. From the perspective of myth archetype, they are in the state of fragmented mixture. Facing the dilemma of fragmented identities, I argue that Rushdie reveals his determination of “pickling chutneys” to challenge the Indian historical orthodox through mythological archetype, and he tries to show Indian history with another version.
Midnight's Children; Fragmentation; Colonial Culture; National Identity; Myth Archetype
Yunou Liu. From Pickles of Chutney to National Identity: The Fragmentation in Midnight’s Children. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2020) Vol. 3, Issue 11: 62-68. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2020.031109.
[1] Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991. (London: Granta Books, 1991), p.26. Also see Diane M, " Midnight's Children: Reclaiming a Magical Realism". ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2006. And see Maggie, Bowers, Magical Realism, (London and New York: Routledge, 2004).
[2] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.264.
[3] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.266.
[4] Sanga, Jaina C. Salman Rushdie’s Postcolonial Metaphors: Migration, Translation, Hybridity, Blasphemy and Globalization. Greenwood Press, 2001
[5] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.167.
[6] Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991. (London: Granta Books, 1991), p.25. See the parallel with the history of India in this book: Hermann, Kulke and Dietmar, Rothermund, A History of India, (New York: Routledge, 2004).
[7] Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991. (London: Granta Books, 1991), 1991, p.26.
[8] See Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), pp. 47- 50.
[9] See Jung, Collected Works, " Instinct and the Unconscious ", 1960, pp.137- 138.
[10] See Jung, Collected Works, " Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation", 1960, pp.286- 287
[11] Soren Frank. (2010) The aesthetic of elephantiasis: Rushdie's Midnight's Children as an encyclopaedic novel, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46:2, 187-198.
[12] Jyothi, B. " Myth and Meaning in Salman Rushdie's Novel: Hindu Mythology in Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh". (Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company, 2000).
[13] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.142.
[14] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.3.
[15] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.265.
[16] Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1981), p.268.