Saleem's Historical Discourse in Midnight's Children

Abstract

It has been the aim of this paper to analyze Midnight's Children with regard  to the evolution undergone by history writing, and specially with the position  it actually holds. This has been done with a view to discovering that much of  postmodernist fiction, among which we must include Rushdie's novel, is  dealing with similar issues to those which have become the subject of the  New Historicism.

The first half deals with the narrator's ambivalent position: his oscillation  between internal and external narrator serves to underline the uncertainty and  relativity of the task he has undertaken. By underlining the discursive nature  of history, and by consciously choosing an impossible task —the struggle  towards objectivity and reliability— Saleem manages further to blur the  frontier that differentiates fiction from history.

The second half deals with Saleem's position both as a character and  narrator. Saleem's fascination with the unknown allows him to write from  new angles, and therefore to offer different perspectives, and points of view.

This concern with history (writing) must be understood as an attempt to  suggest multiplicity, heterogeneity, and plurality. This task is carried out by  continually stressing Saleem's position as a self-conscious writer, and by  commenting on the linguistic nature of his discourse.