Inception of a Nation and the Birth of the Hero: Magic Realism in Meir Shalev’s A Pigeon and a Boy and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Efraim Sicher, Shuly Eilat

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Meir Shalev’s A Pigeon and a Boy (Yona vana’ar, 2006) and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981) both relate love stories to the inception of a nation, but in doing so present postmodern notions of love which are inextricably bound up with acts of violence. In Midnight’s Children Rushdie’s magic realism de-scribes the birth of the protagonist and a nation ripped apart by political conflicts through the motifs of blood, land, sperm, death, and birth. Similar motifs run through Shalev’s novel. The Partition of India in 1947 and Israel’s War of Independence are each presented as acts of inception within love stories that question the ties of body and nation and undermine the official narrative about the birth of the nation. Moreover, conception takes place through an irrational fantasy or a magical act. In each of these novels, though with very different ideological and aesthetic implications, the search for a home questions what a homeland is, and engages with postmodern concerns with globalization and alack of roots.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)107-120
Number of pages14
JournalSymbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics; An International Journal of Critical Aesthetics
Volume12/13
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Nov 2013

Keywords

  • Israeli literature
  • 1900-1999
  • Shalev, Meir (1948-)
  • Yona vana‘ar (2006)
  • novel
  • magic realism
  • nation
  • love
  • Jewish identity
  • Israel-Arab War (1948-1949)
  • partition
  • India
  • Rushdie, Salman (1947-)
  • Midnight's Children (1980)
  • Indian literature
  • English language literature
  • postcolonial novel

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities

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