Reframing Salman Rushdie: the Politics of Representation and New Media in Transnational Public Culture
Open AccessThis dissertation examines the politics of representation in Salman Rushdie’s published works and social media feeds. As a literary celebrity and public intellectual with significant influence over the way in which western media frames discussions about the East, Rushdie’s modes of representation deserve critical scrutiny. I evaluate four areas of representation in Rushdie’s work and argue that these representations have changed over the course of his career as well as reflect the ways in which he attempts to frame himself to the wider public. Ultimately my dissertation seeks to interrogate Rushdie’s politics of representation, reevaluating the early works that made him famous and analyzing his more recent works for comparison as well as to examine Rushdie’s position as a contemporary author and public intellectual. Chapter 1 discusses the ways in which Rushdie depicts physical and mental abnormality in Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, and Luka and the Fire of Life. Chapter 2 analyzes his female characters in light of his own claims to be a feminist in Midnight’s Children, Shame, Shalimar the Clown, and Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights. Chapter 3 looks at Rushdie’s changing representations of Islam and Muslims in Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, Shalimar the Clown, Enchantress of Florence, and Joseph Anton. In the fourth chapter I perform a qualitative analysis and close-reading of Rushdie’s Twitter and Facebook feeds to establish patterns in his social media usage and draw conclusions about the way in which he represents his public persona through these mediums.
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