A Postcolonial Study Of Cultural Identity In Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Salman Rushdie is one of the leading Indian British writers.Awarded Man Booker Prize in 1984,Midnight’s Children earns Salman Rushdie an international reputation.The concern for cultural identity is always a major topic in Salman Rushdie’s work.In Midnight’s Children,Indians suffer from identity crisis and adopt strategies to alleviate their identity anxiety.Based on Homi Bhabha’s post-colonial theory,this thesis analyzes the exploration of Indian identity in Midnight’s Children.This thesis includes three parts:Introduction,body,and conclusion.The body part is divided into three chapters.The first chapter analyzes the identity crisis of Indians under the impact of British cultural hegemony and the uncertainty of Indian traditional culture.The second chapter explores the way Indians imitate British culture and excavate traditional culture respectively to alleviate their identity anxiety.The third chapter analyzes Saleem’s narration,the Midnight Children Conference,and the son of Saleem as the third space to reconstruct Indian identity,but trapped in a predicament.Through the above analysis,this thesis argues that Indians are anxious about their identity.In the decolonial context,Indians fail to reconstruct their identity and find cultural belongingness.Against the historical background of Indian independence,Indians should absorb the essence of their own culture and treat the influence of other cultures correctly so that they can find their own cultural identity.It is also the political significance of Salman Rushdie’s Postcolonial work,including Midnight’s Children.