Book contents
- Salman Rushdie in Context
- Salman Rushdie in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Life
- Part II Literary and Creative Contexts
- Part III Historical and Cultural Contexts
- Chapter 10 Salman Rushdie and History
- Chapter 11 Religious and Ideological Mythologies in Salman Rushdie’s Novels
- Chapter 12 Revisiting the City in Rushdie’s Fiction
- Chapter 13 Nationalism and Transnationalism in Salman Rushdie’s Novels
- Chapter 14 Rushdie and Globalization
- Chapter 15 Salman Rushdie and Diasporic Identities
- Chapter 16 Rushdie and Secularism
- Chapter 17 Orientalism, Terrorism, and Counterinsurgency in Salman Rushdie’s Novels
- Chapter 18 Salman Rushdie’s Upwardly Mobile, Globally Migrating Middle Classes
- Chapter 19 Scheherazade and Her Cousins
- Chapter 20 Filmi Contexts
- Chapter 21 Salman Rushdie and World-Historical Capitalism
- Chapter 22 The Anthropocene and Ecological Limits in the Works of Salman Rushdie
- Part IV Critical Theoretical Contexts
- Part V Reception, Criticism, and Adaptation
- Works by Salman Rushdie
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 12 - Revisiting the City in Rushdie’s Fiction
from Part III - Historical and Cultural Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2023
- Salman Rushdie in Context
- Salman Rushdie in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Life
- Part II Literary and Creative Contexts
- Part III Historical and Cultural Contexts
- Chapter 10 Salman Rushdie and History
- Chapter 11 Religious and Ideological Mythologies in Salman Rushdie’s Novels
- Chapter 12 Revisiting the City in Rushdie’s Fiction
- Chapter 13 Nationalism and Transnationalism in Salman Rushdie’s Novels
- Chapter 14 Rushdie and Globalization
- Chapter 15 Salman Rushdie and Diasporic Identities
- Chapter 16 Rushdie and Secularism
- Chapter 17 Orientalism, Terrorism, and Counterinsurgency in Salman Rushdie’s Novels
- Chapter 18 Salman Rushdie’s Upwardly Mobile, Globally Migrating Middle Classes
- Chapter 19 Scheherazade and Her Cousins
- Chapter 20 Filmi Contexts
- Chapter 21 Salman Rushdie and World-Historical Capitalism
- Chapter 22 The Anthropocene and Ecological Limits in the Works of Salman Rushdie
- Part IV Critical Theoretical Contexts
- Part V Reception, Criticism, and Adaptation
- Works by Salman Rushdie
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Rushdie’s work is intertwined with a range of urban landscapes and needs to be contextualized in relation to urban planning, infrastructures, and the complex way his characters navigate these. Bombay/Mumbai remains a central focal point for his writing, from Midnight’s Children to The Ground Beneath Her Feet. The Satanic Verses is closely wedded to an exploration of 1980s London, but increasingly his focus is on New York, which provides the setting for Fury, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, and The Golden House. The chapter explores the wider context of the cityscapes with which Rushdie engages and how the urban environment shapes and structures his narratives, and reveals the darker undersides of crime and corruption with which these cities have become associated. It suggests that Rushdie’s formal techniques and linguistic innovativeness cannot be adequately understood without reference to the cities that have always played such an important role in his writing. Almost all of his main concerns as a writer emerge naturally, and can be examined most productively, in the space of the metropolis.
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- Salman Rushdie in Context , pp. 159 - 169Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023