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The Nation's Monstrous Women: Wives, Widows and Witches in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children

Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

This article explores the function of misogyny in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981), an aspect of the novel which is often too easily interpreted as a shortcoming on Rushdie's part rather than as a conscious and multi-layered strategy. It focuses on the question of woman and her national role, and the striking traits of monstrosity displayed by the female characters. In order to explore the crucial link between their apparent monstrosity and their significance for the nation in the novel, the portrayal of the novel's monstrous wives, widows and witches is analysed in relation to the representation of Indian womanhood in Indian historiographical and political discourses. The article identifies two main trajectories of the theme of female monstrosity, one aimed at criticizing the nation's unwillingness to grant women an equal status and the other designed to demonize Indira Gandhi.

Key Words: Salman Rushdie • Midnight's Children • historiography • feminism • nationalism • misogyny

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