Subversive Women in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Giovanni Ferrazzano (Università di Udine)

Abstract

Discostandosi dalle prime critiche femministe che hanno etichettato l’opera di Salman Rushdie come misogina, questo articolo esamina la rappresentazione delle donne ne I figli della mezzanotte per mettere in luce come le principali protagoniste femminili rispondano in modo creativo e rimodellino le strutture sociali oppressive in cui vivono. Utilizzando il modello mutuale di Riane Eisler, l’articolo evidenzia le analogie fra il concetto indù di Shakti (potere femminile divino) e la partnership come alternativa efficace di relazione e incontro cooperativo alle norme sociali di dominio.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-232

Parole chiave: Salman Rushdie, postcolonialism, gender norms, persona, partnership/domination, Hinduism.

Bibliografia

Ahmad, Aijaz. 1991. Salman Rushdie’s Shame: Postmodernism, Migrancy and Representation of Women. Economic and Political Weekly, 26, 24: 1461-1471.

Gupta, Charu. 2001. The Icon of Mother in Late Colonial North India: ‘Bharat Mata’, ‘Matri Bhasha’ and ‘Gau Mata’. Economic and Political Weekly, 36, 45: 4291-4299.

Chatterjee, Partha. 2010. Empire and Nation: Selected Essays 1985-2005. New York City: Columbia University Press.

Cundy, Catherine. 1993. Rushdie’s Women. Wasafiri, 9, 18: 13-17.

Eisler, Riane. 1987. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Eisler, Riane. 1996 [1995]. Sacred Pleasure. Sex, Myth and the Politics of the Body. Shaftesbury (UK): Element Books.

Eisler, Riane. 2021. Partnership and Domination Societies. Lester Kurtz ed. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace & Conflict, https://rianeeisler.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ WPPartnershipDominatorDominationSocieties.pdf (consulted on 15/09/2024).

Grant, Damian. 2012. Salman Rushdie. Horndon-Tavistock-Devon (UK): Northcote House Publishers Ltd.

Hai, Ambreen. 1999. ‘Marching in from the Peripheries’: Rushdie’s Feminized Artistry and Ambivalent Feminism. M. Keith Booker ed. Critical Essays on Salman Rushdie. New York: G. K. Hall, 16-50.

Harshananda, Swami. 2010. Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Mylapore: Sri Ramakrishna Math.

Horn, Madelaine. 2015. “Women have always been the ones to change my life”: Gendered Discourse in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Undergraduate Journal of Humanistic Studies, 1, 1-9.

Grewal, Inderpal. 1994. Marginality, Women and Shame. D. M. Fletcher ed. Reading Rushdie: Perspectives on the Fiction of Salman Rushdie. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 123-144.

Kinsley, David Robert. 1997. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Mercanti, Stefano. 2015. Glossary for Cultural Transformation: The Language of Partnership and Domination. Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 1, 1: 1-35.

Mercanti, Stefano & Antonella Riem. 2022. The Gift of Partnership. Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 9, 2: 1-13.

Panikkar, Raimon. 2007. Lo Spirito della Parola. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.

Price, David. 1994. Salman Rushdie’s ‘Use and Abuse of History’ in Midnight’s Children. ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 25, 2: 91-107.

Rajeswari, Sunder Rajan. 1993. Real and Imagined Women: Gender, Culture and Postcolonialism. London-New York: Routledge.

Rushdie, Salman. 2006. Midnight’s Children. London: Vintage Books.

Rushdie, Salman. 2010. Imaginary Homelands. London: Vintage Books.

Samarpanananda, Swami. 2010. The Tantras: An Overview. Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India, 115, 4: 269-275.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. Can the Subaltern Speak? Cary Nelson & Larry Grossberg eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 271-313.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1990. Reading The Satanic Verses. Third Text, 4, 11: 41-60.

Weickgenannt, Nicole. 2008. The Nation’s Monstrous Women: Wives, Widows and Witches in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 85: 65-82.

Views: 24

Download PDF

Downloads: 19