Illness Writing In Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Through a close reading of the text,it is found that the narrative of illnesses happens frequently in the novel Midnight’s Children,which is not an unintentional occurrence.The illness has become a metaphor for national identity.It embodies not only the morbid existence of the body,but also the hybridity of Indian National Identity in the postcolonial era,and it is also the epitome of a morbid society.In postcolonial contexts,the illness has long transcended medical realism,becoming inextricably linked to the social system,colonial trauma,gender discrimination,and racial selfidentity.Thus,it will be extremely beneficial to investigate the illness writing in postcolonial works and to gain an understanding of its metaphorical implications and realistic concerns.This thesis will use the illness as metaphor,as well as Homi Bhabha’s identity hybridity theory,to conduct an in-depth investigation of a range of illnesses in Midnight’s Children.This thesis analyzes different types of illnesses in the novel through close reading and cultural interpretation in order to reveal the profound national identity hybridity and metaphor contained in the illnesses in Midnight’s Children.It is discovered that the physical and mental illnesses in the novel have abundant historical and cultural metaphors and mirror the characters’ hybrid identities.The illness depicted in the narrative serves as a powerful metaphor for the devastation and trauma inflicted on the nation by the colonists.And Mrs.Gandhi’s action in eliminating midnight’s children’s disability implies the purification of India’s hybrid identity.However,history cannot be erased,and national identification can only be improved and strengthened by accepting the hybridity brought about by colonization and acknowledging historical“defects”.