Midnight’s Children

“Only by unleashing the fictionality of fiction, the imaginativeness of the imagination, the dream songs of our dreams, can we hope to approach the new, and to create fiction that may, once again, be more interesting than the facts.” -Salman Rushdie, “Ask Yourself”. Nobody exemplifies these notions better than Rushdie himself. Therefore, this course will be an exploration of the fantastical world of Salman Rushdie through his seminal novel Midnight’s Children. Deemed as one of the Great Books of the 20th century, which won the Booker prize the year of its publication, 1981, and the Booker of Bookers twice over (in 1993 and 2008), the novel is a prime example of postcolonialism with a magical realist twist.

In this class, we will take a deep dive into Rushdie’s novel by paying close attention to the prose and his style and the history and contexts that he sets up in this novel. Therefore, the reading of the novel will be supplemented with historical background and literary criticism that bring up questions of utopia, nation, politics, identity, and subalternity, to name a few. You will be evaluated on class participation and written assignments like discussion posts, an oral presentation, a paper, and a final project.

Always visit the Registrar's Office for the official course catalog and schedules.