Chapter 6 - Art-Historical Magic Realism and Rushdie’s Twenty-First-Century Politics

Summary

The mode of writing with which Rushdie’s work has most often been associated is magic realism. Critics have compared his oeuvre with those of South American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. This chapter explores Rushdie’s engagement with realism beyond South American literary traditions, re-engaging with the art-historical mode of magic realism conceived in Germany in the 1920s. Rushdie’s conceptual approach to space, place, and time is deeply rooted in a visual literacy that aligns with the mysterious paintings of magic realism, as well as drawing on the technical magic of photography and cinema. This focus enables stronger connections to be made between art, visual cultures, and Rushdie’s geopolitical realism, reinvesting criticality in the mode and discourse of literary magic realism.