Salman Rushdie, one of the progenitors of the worldwide controversies till date, occupies a coveted place in the galaxy of post-colonial authors. His literary expedition spans over four decades—right from his maiden novel, Grimus (1975)—to the latest, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015). Rushdie adroitly situates postcolonial impressions of the Indian subcontinent and beautifully paints the canvas of fictions with multiple hues of ethnicity, Muslim imperialism, and historical blend in the post-Independence politics of India. The novels of Salman Rushdie are the true representatives of postcolonial fiction. He embodies in his own life and in his writings, the conundrums of the postcolonial author, writing within the traditions of Indo-English literature while concurrently appealing to the conventions and tastes worldwide, especially to the Western audience.
The book offers fresh perspectives on Salman Rushdie. It contains seventeen critical essays that traverse through his literary taxonomy and bring out an incisive criticism. The papers reflect profoundly upon his fiction within the theoretical rubrics of ‘postcolonialism’, ‘orientalism’, ‘gender theory’, ‘diaspora’, and ‘identity’. Each essay closely scrutinizes and puts forth the insights of multiple themes that Rushdie adeptly deals with. The book seeks to find how Rushdie is germane in the twenty-first century politics of globalization, literary schema, and cosmopolitanism. The younger and budding scholars from India and abroad candidly bring out their views on Rushdie’s assorted works in it. All the essays collectively corroborate that Rushdie’s works are difficult to study without some supportive criticism. Hence, this anthology!
Ajay K. Chaubey, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Sciences and Humanities at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Uttarakhand. He has recently published his maiden academic work, V.S. Naipaul: An Anthology of 21st Century Criticism (Atlantic, 2015). Dr. Chaubey has visited and participated in conferences and symposiums held at Nottingham Trent University, University of Leicester, and York St. John University, York (UK) during June 2014. His research papers have appeared in the journals of repute like Critical Practice, IJML, Labyrinth, Journal of AESI, Creative Forum and Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society (published by the Graduate School of English, Assumption University, Thailand).
Janmejay K. Tiwari holds Ph.D. degree on Salman Rushdie from the University of Allahabad. Currently, he is working as a freelance academician based in New Delhi.
Bishun Kumar, Ph.D. from University of Lucknow, is Assistant Professor of English in School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Babu Banarasi Das University, Lucknow. He has qualified
U-SET and UGC-NET. He has co-edited two books entitled Major Voices in New Literatures in English and Mahesh Dattani: Themes, Techniques and Issues—both from Atlantic, in 2015.
