Salman Rushdie, Shalimar The Clown

Andrew Teverson (Kingston University)
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In

Shalimar the Clown

(2005), Salman Rushdie turns to the one remaining thread of his complex cultural inheritance that he has not yet given substantial novelistic treatment: the state of Kashmir. Bombay, Pakistan, London and New York, more or less in that order, have all performed central roles in earlier works. Kashmir, the homeland of Rushdie’s maternal grandfather and one-time favourite location for Rushdie family holidays, had appeared only as a shadowy original for the Valley of K in the children’s fantasy

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

(1990), and as the point of departure for Aadam Aziz, cast out of paradise after losing his faith in

Midnight’s Children

(1981).

Midnight’s Children is the only novel, pre-Shalimar, to have given Kashmiri politics a more than passing glance. In

3215 words

Citation: Teverson, Andrew. "Shalimar The Clown". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 December 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16868, accessed 31 October 2024.]

16868 Shalimar The Clown 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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