Interpretation On The Sense Of Cultural Conflict And Cultural Fusion In Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children is almost of the greatest literary value among the works by Salman Rushdie, a well-known British novelist in the 20^th century. The novel caused a sensation as soon as it came out in 1981. It was awarded the Booker Prize and the "Booker of Bookers", because of which,Rushdie joined the famous writers in the world overnight and he is universally regarded as one of the most important representatives of postcolonial literature. Rushdie is of the background of Hinduism, Islamism and Christianity. Because of his diversified cultural setting, Rushdie, by means of the hero Saleem's personal destiny and with a wide field of political and social vision, represents political turbulence, social changes, religious issues and the other complicated phenomena around the Independence of India; Rushdie, with the aid of his wealth of imagination, unfolds before our eyes the convergence, collision and coexistence of postcolonial-era cultures in the multidimensional world; he reveals that the culture and value concepts to embody Christianity brought about by British domination lead to coexistence , mutual conflicts and mutual infiltration of the indigenous Hinduism to India, Islamism and the other loan thoughts in the South Asian Subcontinent.By applying the theories of postcolonialism, the writer aims at studying and interpreting mutual conflicts and fusion of three cultures, Hinduism, Islamism and Christianity that are depicted by Rushdie in his Midnight's Children. The thesis is composed of five parts.In the part of Introduction, the writer introduces the background of the thesis, the present research to Midnight's Children, the aim and significance of the paper. The writer emphasizes that researching into Midnight's Children in the light of the theories of postcolonialism and advocating equality, friendship and tolerance to different cultures will contribute to the construction of a harmonious society in which plural cultures coexist, especially at the moment when we are in a period of sharp conflicts of different civilizations. In the first Chapter, the writer gives a brief account of Rushdie's life, his main works, the main plot and general idea of Midnight's Children.Chapter Two is an exposition on the theories of postcolonialism adopted in the thesis: historical development of postcolonialism, its representatives Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, John Tomlison and their main viewpoints.Chapter Three analyzes the sense of cultural conflict in Midnight's Children. Starting with the portraiture of Saleem, the depiction of his family and the mould of Midnight's Children, Rushdie displays the contradictions and discord in man's moral quality, among people and between man and society. By way of depicting racial discrimination, religious conflicts, conflicts among language families and misfit of Western democracy, Rushdie represents cultural conflicts around the Independence of India, a newborn country where three different religious cultures coexist.Chapter Four analyzes the sense of cultural fusion. Rushdie depicts mutual influence and infiltration of different religious cultures and living styles, represents peaceful coexistence and tolerance among people in different religions and with different cultural settings. Rushdie also describes the fusion of languages in "decolonization" and makes known the fusion of a vast amount of religious tales in India. The fusion and coexistence of different cultures are not only Rushdie's ideal but also the reality of the South Asian Subcontinent as well as its inevitable future.The last part comes to the conclusion that Midnight's Children, the novel of postcolonial era, embodies that Rushdie assumes a. vigorous and positive attitude towards the divergence of different cultures. Today, in the 21^st century, the world has come into a plural pattern both in culture and in politics; the coexistence of plural cultures has been a topic which people pay much attention to. Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a novel that reflects profoundly the characteristics of the times, which is the reason why the novel exerts such a great influence.