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.

No description available.

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

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

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2010.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2010.

No description available.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation Ph. D.--University of Turin, 2003. / Bibliogr. p. 213-224.

Thesis Ph. D.--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992. / Bibliogr. p. 197-207.

This thesis shows the condition of outsidedness in the fiction of two Indo-English authors: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Salman Rushdie. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala focuses on the intercultural encounter from the European perspective. Salman Rushdie writes from the expatriate's point of view. Astride the cultural frameworks of India and the West at once they examine the ironic similarities of prejudice and intolerance in both societies. These authors' novels are examined through concepts elaborated by the Russian literary theoretician, Mikhail Bakhtin, such as exotopy or outsidedness, heteroglossia, dialogism, etc. They confirm Bakhtin's contention that cultural confrontation is a potentially enriching source of literary and artistic creation. Jhabvala treats the intercultural encounter within the colonial and post-colonial frameworks and shows the fragile dialogue that does occur between her European characters and India. Rushdie on the other hand centres mainly on contemporary India although he does satirize certain aspects of colonial India. He uses a plethora of historical, literary, cultural and linguistic referents from both eastern and western traditions to subvert the hegemonic discourse of either and to celebrate cultural hybridity.