Grotesque Chronotopes in Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses: Crossing the Threshold Between Horror and Madness
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Authors
Akers, Stephanie
Issue Date
2012-05-15
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Salman Rushdie , Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses , Mikhail Bakhtin , Wolfgang Kayser , Post Colonialism , Sigmund Freud , Anne McClintock , culture , cultural dislocation , Imperialism , chronotopes
Alternative Title
Abstract
Salman Rushdie's novels, Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses, use grotesque
chronotopes in the form of roads, thresholds, and the mind to illustrate the highly
politicized and problematic nature of the post-colonial migrant's hybridity and rootless
existence. Grotesque chronotopes, or time-spaces, are where horror and fear surface,
facilitating the post-colonial individual's removal from the political-imperial center, and
his or her death. This thesis uses theories provided by Mikhail Bakhtin, Wolfgang Kayser, Sigmund Freud, Anne McClintock, and Laura Mulvey, all of which provide critical
foundations on the grotesque, psychology, and objectification, showing that grotesque
chronotopes reveal the negative visual and psychological effects political upheaval and
cultural dislocation have on the post-colonial subject's body and mind. The longer the
post-colonial subject spends within, or interacting with, the political or imperial center,
the more severe the implications of the grotesque; horror, fear, madness, and death are the ultimate, inescapable results.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Valdosta State University
License
Copyright protected. Unauthorized reproduction or use beyond the exceptions granted by the Fair Use clause of U.S. Copyright law may violate federal law.