In-Betweenness and Error in Midnight’s Children
In-Betweenness and Error in Midnight’s Children

Summary/Abstract: Rushdie uses magic realism to negotiate historical perception and explain comprehension errors. All of the author’s efforts are made in order to preserve memory – he calls it the “chutnification of history” – and to give ascendancy to personal memory, no matter how flawed, unreliable or subjective it might be. Saleem, the protagonist of the novel, does not adopt the role of an objective chronicler. He intentionally fragments and distorts history/reality so that he may turn the situation to his advantage. Therefore Midnight’s Children should not be perceived as a history lesson, but as an innovative text willing to play with facts/reality and inviting the readers to be open-minded to errors of perception.

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