Kashmir as the center of conflict in the novel “Midnight's Children” by Salman Rushdie

Abstract

The subject of this research is the conflicts generated by mythological and historical space in Kashmir Valley, which is one of the central artistic images in the novel “Midnight's Children” by the British writer of Indo-Pakistani descent Salman Rushdie. Conflict situation within the framework of Kashmir’s topos is sense-making, as it is associated with the problem of choice and acquisition of cultural wholeness by the character of the novel. The historically substantiated propensity towards conflict of the actual geographical region, which became the cause for interethnic hostility between Pakistan and India, is complicated by the conflict of Western and Eastern cultures. The "East – West" opposition implies the conflict between the conservatory intentions of the Eastern autochthonous culture and the attempts of it suppression by pro-Western migrants. The author applies historical and literary, hermeneutical and mythopoetic methods. It is determined that involvement of Kashmir’s topos in the artistic world of the novel is substantiated by the historical and interethnic conflicts in the region related to acquisition of independence by India. On the mythological level, Kashmir manifests as a space that synthesizes the ambivalent forces of destruction and creation, which reveals the latent propensity towards conflict that underlies the world. The clash of cultures and worldviews is described in the novel through the symbolic pair of characters – Indian Westerner Adam Aziz and the local boatman Tai. Relations between the characters actualize the stratified systemic conflict (interpersonal, internal, religious-mythological, problem of choice). Subsequently, this conflict propels to the ontological level, reflecting the problem of heroes of finding their place in postcolonial world