Self-Exile Of Female Characters In Salman Rushdie’s Shame

Salman Rushdie’s Shame, published in1983, can be regarded as one ofRushdie’s outstanding masterpieces.The thesis based on the theories of feminism against the historical background ofpostcolonialism, tends to give a close textual analysis of Rushdie’s Shame. Byanalyzing the aspects of female characters as seen in various life stages, psychologicalmovements, daily activities, vocal and mute discourses against the patriarchaldiscourses, and feministic sexualities of defence and revenge in Shame, the thesis,with the help of the analysis of images and meanings of “shame”, discusses women’sinitial awareness and awakening of self-identity and ego. The conclusion of the thesisis that the mental and psychological deformity as well as animalization are not the“shame”. Instead, it is the exploration and discovery of identity andself-consciousness that the female characters in Shame strive to possess as a strategyof self-exile toward an eternal freedom.