(Re)writing (Hi)stories A Comparative Study of G�nter Grass's The Tin Drum and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children

David Jacco

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Cuomo, Glenn

Keywords

Rushdie, Salman, Grass, G�nter

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

In this essay, I compare Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children (1980) with Giinter Grass's The Tin Drum (1959). In particular, I am looking at the complex use of history in both works, one of which deals with post-Independence India and one of which deals with the Second World War in Germany and Poland, respectively. My thesis is that by looking at the way these modern epic novels treat concepts like history and other socially constructed ideas, like guilt, progress, and national identity, we can see a shared philosophical and political perspective that both novels exhibit. In order to argue this point, I attempt to provide a postmortem and postcolonial theoretical framework which I use to analyze these novels based on the theories of thinkers such as Linda Hutcheon, Michel Foucault, Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, as well as quotes from both authors about their own works and beliefs.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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