Postmodernism In Midnight's Children | ipl.org (2023)

FAQs

Is Midnight's Children a postmodern novel? ›

Midnight's Children is about events of great importance that reflect India before and after its independence. In addition, it is a postcolonial text with a postmodern flavour.

The main difference between modernism and postmodernism is that modernism is characterized by the radical break from the traditional forms of prose and verse whereas postmodernism is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions.

Midnight's Children uses the framework of magical realism to explore the problems of postcoloniality, as the postcolonial citizens attempt to create and share their own histories, identities, and stories to others. The novel explores Indian historical events through Saleem's familial and his own personal history.

One of the principal works of postmodern literature published in 1983, Shame by Salman Rushdie exhibits the best features of a post-modern novel by a style of magic realism by touching some political issues and some significant characters in a turbulent Pakistan in the way of historiographic fiction.

Sex and Gender. Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a harsh critique of the gender-related power struggles of postcolonial Indian society.

Midnight's Children, allegorical novel by Salman Rushdie, published in 1981. It is a historical chronicle of modern India centring on the inextricably linked fates of two children who were born within the first hour of independence from Great Britain.

postmodernism, also spelled post-modernism, in Western philosophy, a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.

Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourse which challenges worldviews associated with Enlightenment rationality dating back to the 17th century. Postmodernism is associated with relativism and a focus on ideology in the maintenance of economic and political power.

Rushdie has extensively used Magic Realism in Midnight's Children. He fuses fantasy and fiction in Indian background. Saleem has the magical powers of smell and telepathy and these special powers are characteristics of all midnight's children.

What is the significance of the title Midnight Children? ›

The title, Midnight's Children, refers to the 1001 Indian babies born between midnight and 1:00 a.m. on August 15, 1947, when India received her independence. All of the children born during this hour had special powers of some kind.

Midnight's Children narrate the history of India's evolution from British colonialism to self-government. The tale is spoken through different characters gifted with magical powers and is positioned within history.

Salman Rushdie, in full Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, (born June 19, 1947, Bombay [now Mumbai], India), Indian-born writer whose allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues by means of surreal characters, brooding humour, and an effusive and melodramatic prose style.

Born: June 19, 1947. Bombay, India

The works of the Indian author Salman Rushdie often focused on outrages of history and particularly of religions. His book The Satanic Verses earned him a death sentence from the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900–1989).

How does Rushdie's narrative style reflect the novel's intentions? Rushdie employs a number of different literary techniques and styles in the telling of Saleem's story. The novel is at once funny, dark, ironic, allegorical, and historical. The language ranges from colloquial slang to the eloquently lyrical.

Background and plot summary

Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in 1947 British Raj India and after the partition of India. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment when India became an independent country.

By delivering Saleem into the hands of the Widow, Shiva is responsible for the destruction of the midnight's children, and yet, by fathering Aadam and hundreds of other children, he ensures the continuation of their legacy.

Padma Mangroli is Saleem's lover and, eventually, his fiancée. Padma plays the role of the listener in the storytelling structure of the novel.

The title, Midnight's Children, refers to the 1001 Indian babies born between midnight and 1:00 a.m. on August 15, 1947, when India received her independence. All of the children born during this hour had special powers of some kind.

Time period: 1915 to 1977. Location: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Who is the father of postmodernism? ›

FOLLOWING the great American modernist poets of the first decades of the 20th century -- Pound, Eliot, Williams -- Charles Olson is the father of the "postmodernists" of the second half of the century, bridging Pound & Co. to such major poets as Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley.

Postmodern movies aim to subvert highly-regarded expectations, which can be in the form of blending genres or messing with the narrative nature of a film. For example, Pulp Fiction is a Postmodern film for the way it tells the story out of the ordinary, upending our expectations of film structure.

Modernist artists experimented with form, technique and processes rather than focusing on subjects, believing they could find a way of purely reflecting the modern world. While modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born of scepticism and a suspicion of reason.

Postmodern artists, writers, and philosophers who were open to questioning socially constructed identities challenged preconceived notions of sexuality and gender and inspired widespread change. Technology: Technology has directly influenced two major themes of the Postmodern Period: digitalization and globalization.

Postmodernism is best understood as a questioning of the ideas and values associated with a form of modernism that believes in progress and innovation. Modernism insists on a clear divide between art and popular culture. But like modernism, postmodernism does not designate any one style of art or culture.

Postmodernism had begun as a radical fringe movement in the 1970s, but became the dominant look of the 1980s, the 'designer decade'. Vivid colour, theatricality and exaggeration: everything was a style statement.

In this page you can discover 16 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for postmodernism, like: post-modernism, post-structuralism, postmodernity, poststructuralism, postmodern, postmodernist, modernism, structuralism, primitivism, and relativism.

Narratively, postmodern children's literature is often described as non-linear, with several seemingly dis- connected threads of text or stories with ambiguous plot lines that invite the reader to be the co-author.

Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues.

What Is the Purpose of Magical Realism? Magical realism allows writers to make social critiques by questioning the accepted realities they live in and juxtaposing them with magical elements, which are made to appear as “normal.”

What is magic realism in film? ›

Magical realism portrays fantastical events in an otherwise realistic tone. It brings fables, folk tales, and myths into contemporary social relevance. Fantasy traits given to characters, such as levitation, telepathy, and telekinesis, help to encompass modern political realities that can be phantasmagorical.

Naseem Ghani

Saleem's grandmother, and Aadam Aziz's wife. After marriage, Naseem becomes known as Reverend Mother, in part because of her religious devotion.

The end of Midnight's Children is the scene of Saleem's death. He's crushed underfoot by a huge crowd and turned into dust. But he tells us that this is not the end. There will be more midnight's children, generations and generations of them, and they will all live the same way that he did.

Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India's 1,000 other “midnight's children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

In India, 1947, two newborn babies are swapped in a hospital, after which they are doomed to live each other's life in a country that is going through big changes.

Midnight's Children / Film synopsis

Saleem Sinai opens the novel by explaining the exact date and time of his birth: August 15, 1947, at midnight. Saleem's birth coincides precisely with the moment India officially gains its independence from Britain. Thus, as Saleem notes, his miraculously timed birth ties him to the fate of the country.

Shiva is also the biological father of Parvati-the-witch's son. Parvati traps Shiva into impregnating her, knowing that he will lose interest in her after she is pregnant, allowing an impotent Saleem to claim her fatherless baby.

Saleem and Shiva are both born at the stroke of midnight and switched before given back to their parents by Saleem's nanny, Mary Pereira.

"Artists lives are made difficult by engagement with power," he said, "but the job of the artist is to open the universe."

Religious and political beliefs

Rushdie came from a liberal Muslim family, but he is now an atheist. In a 2006 interview with PBS, Rushdie called himself a "hardline atheist".

What is Rushdie famous for? ›

Rushdie is an author, best known for his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses — dubbed by publishing house Penguin Books as one of the most controversial books of modern times. The 75-year-old was born into a Muslim Kashmiri family in Bombay, now Mumbai, before moving to the UK.

The magic-realism novel won him the Booker Prize in 1981. In 1988, Rushdie published his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses. Some Muslims considered the novel disrespectful of the Prophet Mohammed. Some of his publishers and translators were also attacked and killed.

His novel Shalimar, the Clown was published in the year 2005. It takes the theme of transnationalism and transgression. It debates the issue of terrorism, strategies of new imperialists like U.S. and the issue of present day Kashmir in India.

Salman Rushdie

Somewhat confusingly 'modern society' refers to European society between roughly 1650- 1950 (ish) and post-modern society refers to European and many other 'advanced' 'post-industrial' societies from around 1950 (ish) onwards.

Modern art and postmodern art have a great deal in common: both epochs cannot be reduced to a single art form or style, nor can they be reduced to one theory. Rather, the two eras are famous for having produced different styles and ideas about art.

Postmodern movies aim to subvert highly-regarded expectations, which can be in the form of blending genres or messing with the narrative nature of a film. For example, Pulp Fiction is a Postmodern film for the way it tells the story out of the ordinary, upending our expectations of film structure.

Narratively, postmodern children's literature is often described as non-linear, with several seemingly dis- connected threads of text or stories with ambiguous plot lines that invite the reader to be the co-author.

Is postmodernism still relevant today? ›

Indeed in the previous decades before us, postmodernism was in vogue in the academic settings of our country and in the Western world. It's not necessarily that way today. You still find it in literary departments. You still find it, unfortunately, sometimes in theology departments.

A Brief History of the Term "Postmodernism"

The historical origins of the term lead back at least to English painter John Watkins Chapman, who was probably the first to use the term "postmodernism." He used it in the 1870s to simply mean what is today understood to be post-impressionism.

Postmodern artists, writers, and philosophers who were open to questioning socially constructed identities challenged preconceived notions of sexuality and gender and inspired widespread change. Technology: Technology has directly influenced two major themes of the Postmodern Period: digitalization and globalization.

Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues.

Postmodernism had begun as a radical fringe movement in the 1970s, but became the dominant look of the 1980s, the 'designer decade'. Vivid colour, theatricality and exaggeration: everything was a style statement.

Perhaps his best-known example of the postmodern culture of pastiche is what he calls the 'nostalgia film'. The category could include a number of films from the 1980s and 1990s: Back to the Future I and II, Peggy Sue Got Married, Rumble Fish, Angel Heart, Blue Velvet.

Postmodern society has resulted in new ways of working using IT. Modern – people were more religious in a conventional sense. Postmodern – greater family diversity and same sex couples are just one such example. Postmodern society leads to negotiated and possibly non-traditional gender roles.

Modernist artists experimented with form, technique and processes rather than focusing on subjects, believing they could find a way of purely reflecting the modern world. While modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born of scepticism and a suspicion of reason.

Metamodernism is the cultural code that comes after postmodernism.

Postmodernism is a reaction to the modernist view. In terms of literature, it is characterised by the idea of experimentation and a rejection of conventional forms of literature. Postmodernists believe that there is no “high” art; some works of creativity are not more valuable or artistic than others.