Writer Salman Rushdie: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Salman Rushdie is a famous British writer of Indian origin. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature. Considered a follower of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a prominent representative of magical realism. In 1981, he won the Booker Prize for Midnight's Children.

Writer's biography

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay. He was born in 1947. His parents were Muslims of Kashmiri origin.

The craving for writing he most likely inherited from his grandfather, who was a poet who wrote in the Urdu language common in India.

14-year-old Salman Rushdie was sent to study in England. He majored in history studies at King's College University.

He earned his first money in the theater, writing reviews for magazines. In 1964 he received British citizenship. He was 17 then.

First publications

Salman Rushdie made his semi-sci-fi debut in literature. His first novels and stories went unnoticed by readers and critics.

The first success came to him after the publication of the novel "Midnight's Children". Many still consider it to be his bestproduct.

The novel was first published in 1981. Written in the genre of magical realism, it is a prime example of post-colonial literature.

The author also writes short stories and essays. He is best known for his collection "East - West", essays "Jaguar Smile", "Step Beyond", "Fictitious Homeland".

Children of Midnight

This novel is about a gifted young man named Salema Sinai who was born in 1947, on India's Independence Day. The novel describes the life story of his family before and after the proclamation of the sovereignty of India. The fate of the protagonist is an allegory of the history of his native country.

At the very beginning of Midnight's Children, Rushdie tells the story of Sinai's family before he was born. Describes the events that led to the independence of India. Salem, who was born at midnight on August 15, has become a peer of his country.

It soon turns out that all the children born in this hour became the owners of supernatural powers. They were called the children of midnight. The protagonist becomes a link between children scattered throughout the country. The novel features a sorceress and Shiva the warrior, Salem's sworn enemy.

The main character unwittingly becomes a participant in all major conflicts. With his family, he moves from India to Pakistan, gets injured during the war between Pakistan and India, suffers from the regime that Indira Gandhi establishes in the country. Its history is described beforeearly 80s, when the novel was released.

Critics noted that "Children of Midnight" is an amazing phenomenon, a work written at the intersection of magic and reality. The most amazing thing is that even special beings are not able to overcome the old prejudices. For example, the confrontation between Muslims and Hindus.

This novel brought real fame to Rushdie. He got the Booker Prize for it.

Shortly after that, another novel appeared in Salman Rushdie's biography. It was called "Shame" and was dedicated to Pakistan, also written in the genre of magical realism.

Screening of the novel

Midnight's Children was so popular that in 2012 it was filmed by Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta. It turned out to be a fascinating adventurous drama in which one can trace the main historical and political events that took place in India in the 20th century.

The tape was nominated for Best Film at the London Film Festival, won the Film Directors Guild of Canada Award, and was nominated for the Grand Prize of the Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain).

Satanic Verses

The real sensation was made by the novel "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. It was printed in 1988.

The author formed the name from the part of the Koran that tells about the first biography of the Prophet Muhammad. The debate about how authentic this part is is still ongoing.

The main theme of the work is emigration, as well as the inability of people to adapt to a new culture due to the fact that they constantly strive to return to their roots.

The novel has two storylines that develop in parallel. The modern part takes place in Bombay and London, and the ancient part takes place in Arabia, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

In the modern part of the novel "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie, everything begins with the terrorists blowing up the plane. Two Muslim Indians fall out of the aircraft. Their names are Saladin Chamcha and Jibril Farishta.

Chamcha is an Indian actor who works in England, mostly voicing characters. He has an English wife, but no children. Chamcha gradually turns into a satyr, and later into a devil. Because of this metamorphosis, he is pursued by the police, he has to hide in a London hotel. He becomes his own among young Londoners, they even have a fashion for diabolism.

Farishta is a playboy who was a famous actor in Bollywood. At the same time, he specialized in playing the roles of Hindu deities. Now he is haunted by the ghost of a mistress who committed suicide. Farisht has to become the incarnation of the archangel Jabrail. Meanwhile, in London, he has an affair with a climber named Hallelujah.

Farishta goes to Mecca, which is called Jahiliya in the novel. There he meets the Prophet Muhammad literally at the birth of Islam.

At the end of the piece, Farishta kills Hallelujah in a fit of jealousy. His whole journey to Muhammad in this regard can be considered as one ofconsequences of an exacerbation of schizophrenia. Chamcha returns to India after reconciling with his father.

Reaction to Salman Rushdie's book

This novel by a British writer caused a lot of negative reviews among Muslims. The Iranian theologian Khomeini even publicly cursed the writer and sentenced the author and everyone involved in the publication of this book to death. Khomeini bluntly urged Muslims to carry out the sentence.

Such a reaction to a work of art led to serious consequences. Diplomatic relations between Iran and Britain were severed. This happened after one of the Iranian foundations announced a reward for the murder of Rushdie. At first, the amount was equal to two million dollars, and later increased to two and a half million. The fund also noted that it does not have to be a Muslim, they are ready to pay anyone who kills Rushdie.

Most likely, such a furious reaction was caused by one of the chapters in which Mahound, as the prophet Mohammed is called in the novel, under pressure from the leaders of Mecca, recognizes several pagan goddesses who have a special status in the eyes of God. In another episode, Mahound's former opponent, a poet named Baal, hides in a brothel where all the prostitutes are named after the prophet's wives.

There is another scandalous episode of the novel. In it, Gabriel meets a religious fanatic, in whom it is easy to recognize Khomeini himself.

Rushdie in hiding

For many years, writer Salman Rushdie has had tohide. Only occasionally does he appear in public. He even repented, but the Muslim community rejected him. Khomeini's successor Ali Khamenei said that Rushdie's death sentence would never be overturned even if he became the most pious man on earth.

Only with the coming to power in Iran of President Mohammad Khatami, the situation began to calm down. In 1998, he stated that the government did not intend to take any action that could harm Rushdie. Therefore, the case of the author of "The Satanic Verses" can be considered closed.

But in 2003, the Revolutionary Guards organization from Iran stated that the writer's death sentence was still in effect. In 2012, the award was increased to $3,300,000.

The last time we returned to this topic was in February 2016. Then it became known that in Iran the reward for the execution of the sentence has increased again. Now for 600 thousand dollars.

Best in 40 years

Rushdie has another unique award. In 2008, an Internet vote was organized in England for the best winner of the Booker Prize of the last 40 years. The award went to the hero of our article. He was recognized as the best among the other laureates in terms of total literary merit.

Only his children were able to attend the ceremony. They were awarded a special prize and a check for £50,000.

By the way, after the "Satanic Verses" scandal, the writer refocused on fairy tales, and also began to publish Salman Rushdie collections of short stories. One of the most famous andpopular of his works of that period - a small novel "Garun and the Sea of \u200b\u200bStories". Perhaps his brightest work.

In the mid-2000s, despite ongoing Muslim persecution, Rushdie ran PEN in the US for three years.

Private life

Rushdie is known to have been married four times. The most famous wife was the actress from India Padmme Lakshmi. They got married in 2004. For the writer, she became just the fourth wife.

Lakshmi has Indian and American citizenship. Fame came to her in 1999 when she played in the adventure series "Pirates" by Lamberto Bava.

Audience may remember her from Paul Maed Burges' melodrama Spice Princess and Vondie Curtis-Hall's drama Glitter.

The problem of emigrants

Raised in one of his first works, the problem of emigrants Rushdie continues to raise until now. In particular, the novels "The Earth Under Her Feet" and "The Moor's Farewell Sigh", published in the 90s, are dedicated to her.

In addition to studies of the self-identification of emigrants, the British writer in these works raises the theme of the celebrity cult in a modern world subject to total globalization.

Clown Shalimar

One of the author's latest popular novels is called Shalimar the Clown, written by Salman Rushdie in 2005.

In this piece, Rushdie talks about a difficult and tragic situation,which develops in Kashmir, the homeland of his parents. On the pages of this novel, readers can trace the gradual transformation of an ordinary acrobatic clown named Shalimar into a real cold-blooded assassin.

At the center of the story are several main characters. This is Shalimar himself, actress Bunya, American Ambassador Max Ophals, as well as his daughters. Using their example, Rushdie clearly demonstrates the collision of Muslim, Western and Indian cultures.

After 2005, Rushdie released three more novels. These are "The Florentine Enchantress", "Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights", "House of Gold".