Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Imaginary Homelands
Imaginary Homelands
- Salman Rushdie
(Born-19 June 1947)
Plot Summary :
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism from 1981-1991 is a book of essays by acclaimed
author Salman Rushdie. Though Rushdie is best known for his provocative novels, most of
which are set in and around India, this book features seventy-four of his essays, which
examine issues of migration, literature and colonialism, socialism and political activism,
modernism, and more. Only loosely connected in their central themes, the essays reflect
Rushdie's view of the world, politics, and his own personal experience as a migrant and
native of a formerly colonized nation.
Rushdie also makes some interesting notes about translation and the idea of what it means
to be translated in this collection. Saying that translation, from the Latin root, means
“bearing across,” he sees himself and other immigrants as people who have been “born
across” various oceans and continents, and are thus “translated men.” He is interested in
the idea of being translated as an identity, fighting the notion that something is always lost
in translation – as such, that there is always a loss of self. He claims that there is something
to be gained, too, in translation, and that this is one of the reasons that migration is the
predominant theme of nearly all contemporary world literature.
Overall, Rushdie writes on a huge variety of topics, making claims that many readers will
find difficult to swallow. He is interested in this kind of work, and in inciting new thoughts
and belief systems through making brave claims and forcing readers to ask difficult
questions. He continues this work in his essays while including odd anecdotes to myth,
songs, letters, books, poems, and much more.
Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist with a focus on the connection and
“disruptions” between the Eastern and Western worlds. He writes predominantly about the
Indian subcontinent, with a focus on historical fiction and magical realist fiction, which
combine real historical events with fantastical or magical elements. His second novel,
Midnight's Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981, and his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses,
caused an uproar among a number of Muslim nations, leading to him receiving death
threats and being put under British police protection. He has written a number of novels,
story collections, works of non-fiction, and two books for children. In 2007, he was knighted
by the Queen of England for his contribution to literature.