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Chapter 21 - Salman Rushdie and World-Historical Capitalism

from Part III - Historical and Cultural Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2023

By
Treasa De Loughry
Edited by
Florian Stadtler
Florian Stadtler
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Summary

This chapter considers how histories of world systems, specifically global capitalism, are narrated in Salman Rushdie’s fiction. From capitalism’s emergence in The Enchantress of Florence, and the novel’s narration of early modern Mughal and Florentine world systems, through to Midnight’s Children’s depiction of India’s independence and the incipient rise of uneven neoliberal property speculation in Bombay, and The Golden House’s depiction of transnational elites and Bombay money laundering, this chapter maps Rushdie’s shifting representation of the world system, including the failures of the ‘optimism disease’ of postcolonial India and early modern global secular humanism, and how forms like magic realism and cinematic realism limn the emergence of neoliberalism and constellate the end of US hegemony.

Keywords

US fictionscapitalismworld systemshegemonyreal estateSalman Rushdie
Type
Chapter
Information
Salman Rushdie in Context , pp. 264 - 277
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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