Essays on Salman Rushdie

19 June 1947

Writer, Professor

Magic realism. satire, postcolonialism

Historical criticism, travel writing

19 June 1947 (age 75)

Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British writer whose allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues. He is known for his novels, including Midnight's Children, Shame, and The Satanic Verses.

“Luka and the Fire of Life”, “Midnight’s Children”, “Quichotte”, “Shalimar the Clown”, “Shame”, “Step Across This Line”, “The Golden House”, “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”, “The Moors Last Sigh”, “The Satanic Verses”

Immigrant experience, politics, religion, cultural identity, and memory are the central themes of Rushdie's novels.

Salman Rushdie follows the postmodernist prose style of mixing facts with fiction. His allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues by means of surreal characters, brooding humour, and an effusive and melodramatic prose style.

Rushdie’s legacy is impossible to disconnect from The Satanic Verses controversy and the subsequent threat to his life. His willingness to offend and to present supposedly "sacred" topics in ways often deemed disrespectful has given his work a unique ability to cut through the cultural noise, but has also brought danger and controversy.

“Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.”
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”