'Indias of the mind': the construction of post-colonial identity in Salman Rushdie's fiction

This study will examine both the technical development of Salman Rushdie's fiction and its reflection and representation of different levels of psychological stability on the part of the post-colonial subject. Rushdie's writing is introduced by way of a discussion of the work of earlier British writers - chiefly E.M. Forster and Paul Scott. These authors' writing on India serves primarily as an exploration of British self-image and the role of India as a psychological bulwark to British imperial identity rather than its significance as a geographical reality. Paul Scott's work also serves ironically to illustrate shared themes and characteristics between his writing and that of Rushdie. Chief among these are concerns with the individual's role in history and the physical and psychological determinants of identity.

Enoch Powell is discussed briefly as another linking figure; this time between Scott and Rushdie. For Scott, he illustrates the extreme manifestation of imperial self-imagining, while for Rushdie he is seen as largely responsible for creating the demonized persons of the 'immigrant' against which a text like The Satantic Verses seeks to assert itself.

The remainder of the thesis is a detailed exploration of the ways in which Rushdie achieves the representation of a re-integrated and non-demonized identity for the post-colonial subject. This representation is similarly achieved within the framework of texts which increasingly assert their hybridized nature - a blend of eastern and western techniques and ideas - as a positive characteristic.

NOTE: The term 'Anglo Indian' is used in this study to denote those British men and women who lived and worked in India and the literature they produced as a result of their experiences. The term 'Indo-Anglian' is used to denote the work of Indian writers writing in English.