Специфика фантастического в романах С. Рушди (на материале произведений "Дети полуночи" и "Стыд")

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The article analyzes the specific of the fantastic in the works of Salman Rushdie, a British writer of Indian origin. The difference of fantasy in his novels Midnight‘s Children and Shame is revealed by a comparative analysis. The principles of comparative, structural typological, socio-cultural, and mythopoetic analyses are used in the work. The article specifies the definition of magic realism as it is applied to a wide range of literary phenomena. The similarity of cultural and historical conditions in the development of India and the countries of Latin America in the 20th century allows comparing the literary techniques of Rushdie and of Marquez, who Rushdie was influenced by. The research shows that, in Midnight‘s Children, the main way to create its artistic world is mythological fantasy. The presence of mythological and folk images is characteristic of this type of the fantastic. Frequent uses of metaphorisation to represent the reality as a special principle of organizing the literary world is typical for it as well. The article justifies that metaphor in Rushdie’s novel looks like mythological identity. Mythopoetic techniques are actively used in the “Indian” novel Midnight‘s Children to reveal the historical reality, the inner world of the characters, their personal development, and the development of the new independent India. In the research, the reality of the novel is described as marvelous, where fantasy exits in the routine, and this brings Midnight‘s Children close to magic realism. The analysis proves that myth disappears in the novel Shame and the fantastic becomes more grotesque and absurd. Rushdie, choosing an allegorical way of literary synthesis, depicts a phantasmagoric, not marvelous, reality. In the “Pakistan” novel, hyperbolization and grotesque become the main techniques of fantasy that help to reveal satirically social and moral vices. In Pakistan, violations of fundamentals of natural life, rejection of its historical past, harsh moral laws, and absence of liberty lead to the deformation of personality and destructive social life. Fantasy in this novel is shown as grotesque exaggeration, distortion of normal proportions, absurd and consternation. The article concludes that the significant difference between the literary worlds of these two novels is the nature of fantasy, which is an inherent part of their realities. The specification of the novels’ fantastic is based on the different cultural and historic data of the depicted events.