17th Annual Student Research Conference
Language & Literature
Midnight's Children and the Third Space
Ty K. Fagan
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
The conceptual framework known as Third Space is a relatively new arrival in the discipline of literary and cultural criticism, which is itself comparatively young. Third Space is related, but not reducible, to the realms of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and multiculturalism. A paradigmatic piece of Third Space literature, Salman Rushdie’s breakout novel Midnight’s Children is written entirely in the form of a retrospective autobiography by Saleem Sinai. This paper’s originality lies in its attempt to apply the Third Space conceptual model not to Rushdie’s novel, but to the literally identical autobiography of Saleem Sinai. I will be considering Saleem not only as a character, but as author of the pages of Midnight’s Children, exploring new depths of Third Space content in the novel. By doing so, I hope to provide evidence of the great fertility and utility of the Third Space model as a vehicle of artistic creation and critical discussion.
Keywords: Rushdie, postcolonialism, postmodernism, Third Space, Bhabha, Midnight's Children, literature, exile
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 45-1
Location: VH 1304
Time: 3:45