Riscrivere l'uomo, riscrivere il mondo: la potenza creatrice del linguaggio in Midnight's Children di Salman Rushdie

Despite its formal complexity, Midnight's Children remains one of Salman Rushdie's greatest commercial successes. Its themes of self-realisation, identity, memory, the individual's place in History, idealism, and authoritarianism, are still very relevant today. In this article, we will discuss one of the central issues in Salman Rushdie's novel: the power of imagination and the infinite transformative possibilities of language. By exploring the narrative voice of the novel, as well as its postcolonial and postmodernist background, we intend to highlight how Rushdie demonstrates the creative potential of language and how it can serve a constant transformation of the Self, while also criticising its abuse. Focal to this article is the contrast between three opposing narrative modes, as employed by different characters in the novel: magic realism and realism, autobiographical and historiographical writing, inclusive and sectarian sociopolitical narratives.