Magical realism is a literary mode of which Salman Rushdie makes extensive use in his novels, often to convey a political message. It is a technique in which the author presents realistic characters, settings, and events but with elements of the fantastic or mythical which are accepted as a normal part of the world: for example, flying carpets and genies in an otherwise realistic environment. The question I want to address is whether the use of magical realism is actually an effective tool for putting across a political message.

In Rushdie’s 1981 novel Midnight’s Children, a group of 1001 infants born at midnight on the eve of India’s independence discover they have various special abilities (such as time travel or the ability to fly), the most powerful of which is the narrator Saleem Sinai’s ability to read the minds of others and speak to them telepathically. The Midnight’s Children function as the main magical realist device in the novel and represent different forms of government. Saleem suggests that their ability to communicate telepathically (using his mind as a channel) can be used to form a sort of democratic conference ground where the children can all voice their views and decide how best to use their powers. However, Shiva, Saleem’s alter ego, believes that he and Saleem should alone be the leaders of the group, as their powers were distributed in a hierarchical manner: those born closest to midnight had the greatest gifts. Essentially, Shiva and Saleem represent two opposing ways of thinking about the newly born India: should it be an authoritarian, homogenous nation dominated by a single party or individual? Or should it embrace the multiplicity of its constituent religions and languages in a democratic manner? Rushdie explores complexities such as these through his use of magical realism. But is there not an inherent problem with this technique, in that the mythical elements actually detach the reader from the reality of what is being described? If the reader cannot relate to the politicalissues Rushdie is portraying in this manner, they cannot possibly empathize with his views. The fantastic elements of magical realism are essentially untrue, and something cannot be effective if it cannot be believed. Despite these arguments, it does appear that magical realism works in Rushdie’s novels, and the idea that the mythical elements are false becomes somewhat obsolete when we realise that all literature asks us to suspend our disbelief when we enter the world of the novel. In fact, one of the main characteristics of magical realism is that its magical elements are treated as an accepted part of life for the characters, without any sense of surprise or amazement. So by accepting these elements, the reader is also coerced into accepting the political message alongside it.

Magical realism could, however, place a barrier between the reader and the text if it alludes to something of which the reader has no knowledge. In Midnight’s Children the ominous image of the Green Widow refers to India’s former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who is depicted as a witch in the novel: “the Widow’s hand comes hunting hunting the skin is green the nails are black”. Politically, this could refer to President Nixon’s description of Indira as an “old witch”, whilst the emphasis on her hand draws attention to the flag of the Indian National Congress Party. Rushdie’s criticism of Indira’s government may not be obvious to a reader who is unfamiliar with Indian politics, so wouldn’t a straightforward criticism be more accessible than the portrayal of a magical witch? Essentially, no, otherwise the text could be construed as simply propaganda, and we would lose the force of emotion behind Rushdie’s description. It is far more likely that readers will empathize with the text if it is pitched at a personal level, rather than making a generic statement. This is why Rushdie also makes extensive use of the magical realist aspect of Saleem’s face, which physically corresponds to India’s topographical features, as Saleem’s schoolteacher points out: “Thees birthmark on the right ear is the East Wing [of Pakistan]; and thees horrible stained left cheek, the West! … Pakistan ees a stain on the face of India!” Even his oversized nose represents the shape of India itself. The use of magical realism in this way draws particular attention to the section of text Rushdie wants us to look at, as the fantastic is easily discerned from the realistic. Rushdie uses vivid descriptions (such as that of the Green Widow) to invite the reader into unpacking his metaphor and discovering the message behind it. Far from alienating the reader, the magical elements draw the reader into the text and provoke further examination and exploration. Rushdie defends his use of magical realism, saying: “I think of fantasy as a method of producing intensified images of reality … one thing that is valuable in fiction is to find techniques for making actuality more intense, so that you experience it more intensely in the writing than you do outside the writing”. So for Rushdie, magical realism and mythical elements do not obscure reality, but in fact intensify it, whilst the narrative’s dreamlike feel and disjointed structure provide a better representation of the way that human memory and perception function than a linear and organised narrative would.

Unreliable narration is another problem. If the author can invent magical aspects of the world he is writing about, how will the reader know if any of it is a truthful depiction? This can render the author untrustworthy, and so any political ideas that he wishes to bring across will be doubted. Of course this can be explained by the fact that any political message will be based on opinion anyway, no matter how it is presented. However, Rushdie also takes care to elucidate how something mythical can be true without it necessarily being real. In Midnight’s Children, he describes what seems to be a perfect manifesto for magical realism: “What’s real and what’s true aren’t necessarily the same”, because truth is something that can be found in stories or over the horizon in a painting. This theory is put to use towards the end of the novel as Saleem and the other Midnight’s Children (now all nearing 30 years of age) become victim to the controversial forced sterilization campaign led by Indira’s son, Sanjay Gandhi. As they are captured and forced to undergo vasectomies and hysterectomies, they lose both their powers and the ability to reproduce others with such powers. As Saleem says: “She had cut [the magic] out of us”. In reality, the sterilisations were designed to curb the growing population, but in the novel it represents the removal of hope and the end to the potential good the Midnight’s Children could have achieved. It represents the oppression of the masses under authoritarian rule. The idea that the magic could be “cut out” of the children is not ‘real’ by Rushdie’s definition, but it is something is undeniably ‘true’, in the sense that their experience better represents the horror of the situation.

In Rushdie’s novels, it does seem that magical realism can be particularly effective in putting across a political message, as it can vivify and intensify reality whilst allowing something universal to be related on a personal level. However, it can lend itself to misinterpretation. Rushdie’s fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), landed him in trouble with the Muslim community, and a fatwa was issued against him calling for his assassination. His magic realist techniques portrayed the prophet Muhammad and the origins of Islam in what the Islamic world felt was a disrespectful manner, but of course to Rushdie, it was only fiction. Evidently his characters, despite their magical qualities (the two protagonists miraculously survive a fall from an aeroplane), were close enough to “reality” to provoke religious and political controversy. It proves that magical realism does not distance the reader so far from reality that political views cannot be brought across. After being forced into hiding for several years as a result of the controversy, Rushdie re-emerged with Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which again made extensive use of magical realism to represent ideas about the freedom of speech and struggles against censorship. Despite its guise as a children’s story, the novel carries a powerful message about the act of storytelling, and fully embodies Rushdie’s idea that “redescribing a world is the necessary first step towards changing it”.