Unravelling Lost Memories and Digging Deep into Meaning in Midnight’s Children

Abstract

As one of the most significant authors blending the East and the West and reflecting his concerns on the fragile issues such as the clash of cultures, beliefs, identities, postcolonial and postmodern practices, Salman Rushdie presents a multi-layered novel with a fragmented structure which is very similar to human essence. Midnight’s Children is an example of storytelling, individual and collective memory and the human being’s strive for a meaningful life. The narrator, Saleem traces back to his childhood memories and tells his family saga to his audience with the belief that stories, either fragmented or distorted, are materialized and become more real when narrated. Thus, as Saleem feels that his body is about to collapse, he rushes to finish his stories before he dies. He believes that a life narrated and made meaningful is a life worth living. The aim of this article is to discuss how meaning is conveyed through storytelling and memory in a nation where truth and fragmentation collide but plurality and multiple realities are celebrated.

Keywords

• Memory
• Meaning
• Storytelling
• Narration
• Midnight's Children

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