Modern and Contemporary Literature

The class will be reading and discussing The Satanic Verses: A Novel, by Salman Rushdie, published in 1988 (ISBN: 978-0-8129-7671-7). The novel may be the most controversial book of the modern era. Nearly 35 years after publication, the reaction to this piece of magical fiction represents the free-speech debate and today’s cancel culture. The novel takes place in the real world with elements of the fantastic and supernatural. It tells the story of two Indian Muslims and their miraculous brush with death. Two figures plummet from the sky from an exploded hijacked jetliner, washing up on the snow-covered sands of an English beach, and proceed through a series of metamorphoses, dreams, and revelations. Rushdie says the book was not about Islam, “but about migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London, and Bombay.” The book remains a cautionary tale against the suppression of objectionable content and cancel culture, and it warns readers to see works of fantasy and magical realism for what they are: fiction.

January 10: Parts I and II, pages 3-129

January 24: Parts III and IV, pages 133-247

February 7: Part V, pages 251-367

February 21: Parts VI and VII, pages 371-484

March 7: Part VIII, pages 487-561

Seminar Leader: Mary Thompson

Presenter Biography