Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51-55).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51-55). Also available in print.

This thesis is an analysis of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses and The Moor's Last Sigh. The approach is twofold: (a) it seeks to establish an interplay between the concept of exile-in-narration (theme) and narrators-in-exile (form) as a reflection upon questions of rootlessness; and (b) it seeks to underscore this interplay as a recurring 'double bind' within each novel, such that the novels form a loosely bound trilogy that functions as a developing discourse on individual and national identity from a decentred perspective. The aim is similarly twofold: (a) it proposes that the metaphor of exile as a polarized state manifests itself as either an unreflecting pull of opposites or as a thoughtful acceptance of the inter-connectedness between ideas, people, places and things; and (b) it argues that once this polarization becomes evident, it disturbs all static narratives of selfhood and community to the point at which they can be reconceptualized, and yet remain open-ended.

No description available.

This dissertation explores the porous boundaries between Salman Rushdie's fiction and the various manifestations of the filmic vision, especially in Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, and other selected Rushdie texts. My focus includes a chapter on Midnight's Children, in which I analyze the cinematic qualities of the novel's form, content, and structure. In this chapter I formulate a theory of the post-colonial novel which notes the hybridization of Rushdie's fiction, which process reflects a fragmentation and hybridization in Indian culture. I show how Rushdie's book is unique in its use of the novelization of film. I also argue that Rushdie is a narrative trickster. In my second chapter I analyze the controversial The Satanic Verses. My focus is the vast web of allusions to the film and television industries in the novel. I examine the way Rushdie tropes the "spiritual vision" in cinematic terms, thus shedding new light on the controversy involving the religious aspects of the novel which placed Rushdie on the most renowned hit-list of modern times. I also explore the phenomenon of the dream as a kind of interior cinematic experience. My last chapter explores several other instances in Rushdie's works that are influenced by a filmic vision, with specific examples from Haroun and the Sea of Stories, "The Firebird's Nest," and numerous other articles, interviews, and essays involving Rushdie. In my conclusion I discuss some of the emerging similarities between film and the novel, born out of the relatively recent technology of video cassette recorders and players, and I examine the democratizing effects of this relatively new way of seeing.

Proefschrift--Universiteit Leiden, 2001. / Résumés en anglais et en frison. Bibliogr. p. 275-288.

While much attention has been paid to the events which followed the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988), there has been little detailed examination of the role of Islam in that novel and in the rest of Salman Rushdie's fiction, notably Midnight's Children (1981) and Shame (1983). His portrayals of Islam and Islamic societies are not easily recognizable via the traditional structures of the academic study of Islam. His divergence from the vast majority of Muslim tradition and experience can be seen firstly through his own experiences in India, England, and Pakistan; and secondly through his provocative literary exploration of religious beliefs, something which has few precedents in the history of Islam. By using Islamic elements and symbols in the same way that Western literatures have explored religious themes, Rushdie presents irreverent satire and often scathing criticism of many aspects of Muslim societies and culture. The most significant aspect of this critique is the attempt to subvert what Mohammed Arkoun called "Islamic logocentrism," the tendency to confine all discourse about Islam to a certain narrow field of textual interpretation. Rushdie's treatment of religion is informed by an ideal which sees reading and writing for one's own purposes to be the highest form of spiritual exercise, and when Islam is subordinated to the writer's imagination, he has little reason to uphold the authority or sanctity of its precepts, principles, or history.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 44-49).