Meddling with the Muddling Rushdie Affair

• Authors: Dana Bădulescu
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The “Rushdie affair” is one of the most far-reaching book events of the late 20th century. This study argues that the Muslim demonstrations caused by the book’s allegedly “blasphemous” nature, the fatwa and its aftermath may be regarded as a chain of snowballing effects which brought an entire century of book censorship to an end. However, what started the “affair” was not only The Satanic Verses that stirred waves of protests in the Muslim world and ambiguous attitudes in the West, but also its author, whose life was put in serious jeopardy by the fatwa. After 23 years since “the unfunny Valentine” was sent to Rushdie the “affair’”has not stopped radiating a whole spectrum of problems, which are still part of our global culture. This study traces the “affair” since the 14th of February 1989, when the fatwa was decreed, until January 2012, when Sir Salman Rushdie was initially invited to give a video address to the Jaipur Literature Festival in India only to be announced that the address was cancelled on grounds of violence threats from Muslim activists.

Keywords

EN

fatwa; The Satanic Verses; the “affair”; Islam; the Qur’an; hybridity; freedom of expression; censorship

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Linguaculture
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 2012
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 65-76

Dates

published

2012-12-01

online

2013-02-12

Contributors

author

Dana Bădulescu

• Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania

References

• Abdullah, Anouar (ed.). For Rushdie: Essays by Arab and Muslim Writers in Defense ofFree Speech. George Braziller, 1994.
• Gurnah, Abdulrazak (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Gutmann, Amy (ed.). Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition.
• Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.[PubMed]
• Pipes, Daniel. The Rushdie Affair: the Novel the Ayatollah, and the West. New Brunswick: New Jersey Transaction Publishers, Fourth Printing, 2009.
• Ranashina, Ruvani. “The fatwa and its aftermath.” The Cambridge Companion toSalman Rushdie. Ed. Abdulrazak Gurnah, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 47.
• Rushdie, Salman. The Satanic Verses. Viking, 1988.
• Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands. Essays and Criticism 1981-1991. Penguin Books, 1991, Taylor, Charles. “The Politics of Recognition.” Multiculturalism: Examining the Politicsof Recognition. Ed. Amy Gutmann, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. 63. The Satanic Verses Affair, Salman Rushdie (Documentary) Iran, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=9-71XyNMzHY&NR=1 Web. 15 January 2012 Christopher Mitchens on Salman Rushdie’s fatwa, BBC, feb. 12, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Gcoi0J-DI Web. 10 January 2012 Full Transcript “I’m Returning to India, Deal with It”, Salman Rushdie, NDTV, NDTV.com | Updated: January 25, 2012 00:53 IST, http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/full-transcript-im-returning-to-india-dealwith- it-salman-rushdie-to-ndtv-170122&cp Web. 27 January 2012

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10318-012-0018-2