The postcolonial theory and "Islam-Europe" encounter: the Rushdie affair and its interpretations

The “Satanic verses” controversy was regarded by critics as a conflict of European and Muslim worlds. In a sense, publicists and scholars examined the Rushdie affair through the correlation of European and Muslim traditions. Thus in this study I would like to consider how interpreters assess the correlation of European and Muslim elements in the novel and the reasons for such interpretations. In the framework of the study Western and Islamic elements are associated with the literature traditions that different readers outline in the novel, religious bases that allow them to ascribe characteristic features to Muslim or European cultures and their political judgments on the Rushdie affair, in particular, the attitude to the freedom of expression. In this context the work’s purpose is not to investigate the correlation of European and Muslim elements in the novel itself, but to analyze how different interpreters assess this correlation.This general goal subsumes several related objectives. First of all, I will attempt to observe the Rushdie’s position in relation to the “Satanic verses” controversy. On the basis of that I hope to be able to find out not only the Rushdie’s interpretation of the novel, but also to clarify how the scholars use the author’s explanation in their purposes. Secondly, I will intend to analyze the scholarly interpretations and to distinguish their approaches to elucidate what cultural elements and traditions are outlined in the novel by them. Finally, I will compare the variety of interpretations and conclude the reasons of different comprehension of the novel. Consequently, this paper does not give an answer about correct understanding of Rushdie’s work, but it will make an attempt to investigate the mechanism of such various interpretations of “The Satanic verses”.The objective of this study will thus be to answer ‘In what ways interpreters explain the meaning of the novel and what cultural traditions they underline to achieve the goal, and, in doing so, does it depend on a political assessment of the Rushdie’s affair?’. A variety of sources have been utilized in order to answer this question. The most crucial to this study is the object of interpretations, “The Satanic verses”. The use of Rushdie’s autobiography and ego-narratives will form the essence of this project, facilitating another dynamic through which the “Satanic verses” controversy can be explored. Rushdie’s attitude to the encounter may not be objective, mainly, because his perception of the events which followed the publication has been distorted over the years. Another source of my paper is the scholarly studies. Although the value of the scholarly texts as a body of primary sources remains largely underestimated, I will attempt to organize my analysis mainly by three main directions. Different scholars were chosen by two criteria: their accessibility in online database of scholarly articles and their representativeness for the questions I intend to direct. These sources provide us with the information to investigate the cultural elements that different readers emphasize in the novel. To achieve the objective, this study is divided into two main chapters. Chapter One will analyze the Rushdie’s understanding of the novel and the cultural paradigm which he links to the content of “The Satanic verses”. Chapter Two offers a detailed consideration of authors regarding the Rushdie affair, investigating the intellectual, literary, cultural contexts and traditions that they outline in “The Satanic verses”. Equally, this chapter will consider how this understanding was shaped by the political assessment of the Rushdie affair. Finally, I attempt to draw these two chapters together to make some conclusions. In doing so, I assess in which ways different authors represent the novel to conclude the reasons of such different interpretations of the novel.