Symbolism as a Means of Creating Uncertainty in Salman Rushdi’s Novel «Midnight’s Children»

Abstract

The article deals with a role of symbolismin creation of the poetics of uncertainty as an important phenomenon of modern literature. It is noted that in a theoretical sense, symbol is a type of artistic image that is effectively used by writers for the purpose of forming a multi-meaningful content. In the proposed paper, the material for studying the specified effect is Salman Rushdi's novel «Midnight's Children», recognized as very representative of the postmodern paradigm. The purpose of the studio is to identify the means and methods of creating symbolic imagery in the novel, to establish itsartistic and aesthetic functions in the general context of the author's genre and poetic-style searches.The direct factor in expansion of complex symbolic imagery in the novel is an unreliable narration of the protagonist Saleem Sinai. His perception and interpretation of the historical reality is complicated by the physical and mental injuries he suffered and actual mental illness. The recent history of India in the novel has a grotesque-symbolic dimension, which is consistent with the multi-genre status of the work, in which signs of neo-mythological, post-colonial, post-modernist discourse are intertwined. The novel's protagonist conducts his story in such a way that the descriptions of historical events lose their one-dimensionality, acquire a symbolic meaning, become instable in their ambiguity and tend towards uncertainty.