Salman Rushdie's concept of wholeness in the context of the literature of India [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Ute Manecke

Dennis Cooper

Informations

• Publié par: ruprecht-karls-universitat_heidelberg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 35
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des Dr. phil
Eingereicht bei
Professor Dr. Peter Paul Schnierer

Nottingham, Juli 2005



Salman Rushdie’s concept of wholeness
in the context
of the literature of India









Vorgelegt von
Ute Manecke
E-mail: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................3
I. Wholeness through the interaction between different aspects of a person’s psyche and
between an individual and society ..........................................................................................6
I.1. Personal identity in focus .............................................................................................7
I.2. C.G. Jung on structure and functions of the human psyche .........................................15
I.3. Madness and Society..................................................................................................38
I.4. George H. Mead’s sociological view on identity.........................................................45
I.5. Love relationships as a defining factor of identity.......................................................55
I.6. Role theory in Sociology ............................................................................................71
I.7. Culture and Identity....................................................................................................78
I.8. The Hindu philosophy as an Indian approach to wholeness.........................................94
II. Contemporary Anglo-Indian literature and the dynamics of identity.................................99
II.1. India and her literatures...........................................................................................100
II.2. The term ´post-colonial` literature...........................................................................110
II.3. Personal Identity in the (post-colonial) literature of India ......................................116
II.3.1. Colonial Perceptions, Ethnicity and Race ......................................................116
II.3.2. Nationalism and other ideologies....................................................................136
II.3.3. Gender and sexuality......................................................................................151
II.3.4. Caste, Class, Status and Community...................................................................176
II.3.5. The role of religion.........................................................................................193
II.3.6. The individual within the context of migration ...............................................208
III. Developments of the wholeness-theme by Salman Rushdie ..........................................224
III.I. Writing in context: Salman Rushdie’s life and works..............................................225
III.2. Salman Rushdie’s postmodern viewpoint.............................................................238
III.3. Limitations to and the potential of wholeness in Salman Rushdie’s texts..............247
III.3.1. Stages of Self-Awareness in Grimus .............................................................247
III.3.2. Midnight’s Children as a bundle of intertwining histories..............................259
III.3.3. The impact of fundamentalist politics on a nation’s people in Shame.............282
III.3.4. Political resistance to imperialism and dictatorship through revolution in The
Jaguar Smile – A Nicaraguan Journey........................................................................301
III.3.5. The descriptive nature of roles in The Satanic Verses ....................................311
III.3.6. The restoration of the imagination and of the creative impulse in Haroun and
the Sea of Stories ........................................................................................................328
III.3.7. Forms of multiplicity and hybridity in The Moor’s Last Sigh.........................345
III.3.8. The Ground beneath her Feet as an exploration of the impact of love and art on
individuals..................................................................................................................358
III.3.9. The imitation of art and of ‘real’ life: Fury’s investigation of the autonomy or
heteronomy of human nature ......................................................................................376
Final Words .......................................................................................................................390
Bibliography ......................................................................................................................393 3
Introduction

Why is it worthwhile to explore the concept of wholeness? One answer to this question is
that wholeness is something we are all striving for and thus seems to be of central importance
in our lives. Although we sometimes use different words to describe what we mean by
wholeness, our alleged synonyms or descriptions all tend to emphasise the positive meaning
associated with it.
One specific synonym, unbroken, shows particularly well these positive associations.
For a long time many people have believed in the myth that we were once whole, but lost our
1wholeness and should now endeavour to retrieve it. A reason why this is desirable is that
something that is united and not fragmented is usually in the position to function as it should.
In human beings, the capability to function properly can only be generated when the
individual meets adequate standards of health and well-being. In fact, there has now emerged
the term wholistic – originally spelled holistic - health, which is defined as whole person
health or simply as wellness. This stance explains how ‘health’ is derived from the Anglo-
2Saxon word ‘haelth’, which in turn comes from ‘hal’, the latter meaning ‘sound’ and ‘whole’.
The verb ‘heal’ is derived from ‘haelen’, which means ‘restore to wholeness’ or ‘health’. This
is another indication that wholeness has always been considered as central to health and that
this view is now consciously supported.
Unfortunately, the myth of wholeness has developed over time in ways that have led to a
conception of the term, which has been revealed to be both unfeasible in its application to
reality and also undesirable. Over time, wholeness has been increasingly equated with
uniformity, stasis and oneness and as an ideal worth aspiring to. Associations with divinity
have often been made as well in this context. The question arises now how we can
successfully utilise this idea of wholeness in view of a world in which everything seems to be
in motion, in which we confront inconsistencies in ourselves and in others and in which we
find chaos, disaster, destruction, partition and fragmentation from which we can hardly
escape. Not only do we often face difficulties understanding others, but we also very often
find it hard to make sense of ourselves, being puzzled about actions and thoughts that seem
very much out of character. It seems that uniformity is lacking in our identities. We
sometimes appear to be very unpredictable. This is exactly because we are not static but

1 Fietz, Lothar. Fragmentarisches Existieren – Wandlungen des Mythos von der verlorenen Ganzheit in der
Geschichte philosophischer, theologischer und literarischer Menschenbilder. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1994: 3. 4
beings that constantly undergo metamorphoses. This is especially the case in the context of
migration, which often results in the emergence of divided loyalties and hybridities of
languages and cultures. Can we still think of oneness here?
The myth of wholeness suggests perfection and flawlessness in our selves and the world. But
this seems in many ways to contradict our daily experience: We only need to watch or read
about the latest news events in order to become aware of how far away we are from
perfection. Racial, ethnic or religious hatred, fundamentalism or gender discrimination next to
other forms of discrimination that are based on hierarchical ways of thinking render hope for
the creation of ideal beings and an ideal world almost ludicrous.
It therefore seems important to re-conceptualise the idea of wholeness if we want to continue
allocating it a central position in our lives. In my attempt to develop new ways of conceiving
wholeness I especially want to focus on the relationship between the whole and its parts. The
myth of human wholeness seems to suggest that parts of a person appear to be completely
compatible, harmonious and consistent so that they are almost obliterated to the eyes of other
persons. There seems to be the underlying assumption that wholeness gets lost if the parts are
of a different nature. They would then become fragments, a term that emphasises that
brokenness of things by implying the lack and deprivation in them. In contrast, I want to
demonstrate how parts can be other than consistent without having to lead to the
disintegration of the whole, the person. Instead of regarding the pa