Article summary
Abstract
Examining Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, and Shame—three of Salman Rushdie's most famous novels—this research analyzes how the themes of identity crisis and postcolonial allegories interact with one another. The study delves into how Rushdie weaves intricate story allegories that mirror the social and political upheavals of post-independence India and the di- asporic experience, using a postcolonial theoretical framework and a careful reading of the text. His characters often deal with hybridity, cultural displacement, historical trauma, and religious conflict; this research delves into how their identities are fragmented as a result. These stories reflect the difficulties postcolonial nations have had in balancing contemporary national iden- tities with their colonial pasts, and therefore they function as metaphors for broader national fears. The research provides light on how Rushdie uses magical realism, metafictional methods, and multilingual intertextuality to question static concepts of selfhood and nationhood. It does this by interacting with theorists like Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, and Frantz Fanon. It contends that allegory serves as a means of expressing opposition and challenging dominant discourses in Rushdie's writing. The study's overarching goal is to illuminate how postcolonial literature helps us make sense of the many ways in which migration, memory, and multicultural reality impact the construction of individual identities.