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 18 - Salman Rushdie’s Upwardly Mobile, Globally Migrating Middle Classes
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
This chapter examines the middle-class milieu and setting of much of Salman Rushdie’s work. Such an exploration of the upwardly mobile, increasingly affluent, and globally connected Indian bourgeoisie highlights their elaborate lifestyle and aspirations. Another common thread binding the characters in Rushdie’s novels is the city of Bombay/Mumbai. This is the city that his middle-class bourgeois characters share with the criminal classes and the entertainment industry. In Mumbai the lines between the legitimate and the criminal are very often blurred, and many of Rushdie’s protagonists find themselves teetering over the abyss of the underworld. Those of Rushdie’s characters that have moved into global spaces of power and affluence are still umbilically attached to their natal city, where they were born middle-class, but have achieved wealth through crime or the world of entertainment, and have either voluntarily left the island city or have had to flee it. Instead of an omnibus overview, this chapter offers an in-depth analysis of Rushdie’s upwardly mobile middle class as they move from Bombay to London and from there to the new world in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, and The Golden House.
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- Information
- Salman Rushdie in Context , pp. 228 - 239Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023