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In this paper, I have taken into account Fredric Jameson’s essay “Postmodernism or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” to explain Salman Rushdie’s treatment of history in his novel Midnight’s Children. In his essay, Jameson states how we make fiction out of history, that is, how we are fictionalizing history instead of historicizing fiction. In Midnight’s Children, Rushdie fictionalizes history in order to show that history is constructed and that we cannot have an access to “authentic” history. Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, since its publication, has been viewed as a modern epic of India, dealing with many important historical moments from the Jallianwala Bagh incident of 1919 to the Emergency of 1975. The reader experiences the story through the eyes of the main character, Saleem Sinai, who was born auspiciously at midnight of India’s Independence. The time of his birth matters because it has made him “mysteriously handcuffed to history, (his) destinies indissolubly chained to those of (his) country”(Midnight’s Children 1). He is prophesied as a historicist who is destined to witness the fate of his country. However, Saleem’s history is different from that we know about India. Throughout the book, we find Saleem cutting up history to suit himself, just as he did when he cut up newspapers to compose his earlier text, the anonymous note to Commander Sabermati. Saleem Sinai does not always accurately recount the events in recent Indian history during the course of Midnight’s Children.
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