| Bemerkung |
The Satanic Verses (1988) is one of the most controversial novels of the contemporary era. Few works can claim to have the same level of political strife, and danger, associated with them. Because of its depiction of the Prophet Muhammed, and its supposed blasphemic content, Ayotallah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie, which still stands to this day. Rushdie was forced into hiding for many years, living under the assumed name Joseph Anton, the novel's Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi was murdered in 1991, Wiliam Nygaard - the Norwegian publisher of the novel - was shot three times in 1993, and in that same year an attempt on the life of the Turkish translator of the novel - Aziz Nesin - resulted in the deaths of 17 people. Last year, Rushdie was stabbed on stage in New York.
We will address the various reasons for this violent outrage, but we will also explore one of the great works of post-war fiction. To reduce The Satanic Verses to the political controversy around it is to ignore the ways in which Rushdie - an Indian writer who spent much of his life in Britain - brings together the contemporary and the ancient, the real and the imaginary, the mythology of Europe, India, and the Middle East, literature and film, and beauty and madness.
For the course you will need to purchase a copy of the novel. |
