Self-reflexivity in Salman Rushdie’sShame

Abstract

This research paper explores Salman Rushdie’s novelShameby focusing on the self-reflexive nature of narration. It attempts to highlight that this approach ofthe authorto self-reference his own processdraws attention tothe constructed nature of thenoveland it also challengesthevariousoppressive ideologiesby drawing attention to their construction.There is a regular intrusion ofnarrator as the authorof thenovel where he discusses in length about his inspiration, ideas and approach to write this novel.Here the author reflects upon the various issues like historical narrative, religion, relationship of shame and violence, oppression of women.Instead of justdramatizing the issues and themes, the author examines their construction and function. By drawing attention to their conventionality, he problematizes their use as a tool of oppression.Thereareseveral references to the events and characters of Pakistan’s history as well as other literary works.This paper primarily uses Linda Hutcheon’s concept of Historiographic Metafictionand Patricia Waugh’s ideas of metafictionto explore how the Rushdie’s self-aware and self-referential technique of storytelling focuses on the intertextual and parodic nature of this novel.The self- reflexive act of the narrator illuminates the various themes and issues discussed by the novel.Thenarrator lays bare the traditional methods of characterization and narrationandhighlights the constructed nature and artificiality of the textas well as reality.It also foregrounds the relationship between fiction and the world outside the fiction.