Reading Shame in a Postmodern Age

Abstract

SHAME is contagious in Salman Rushdie's novel. The human characteristic shame is shared by both male and female protagonists of the novel, sufiya and Omar. Although these two characters are treated as marginal at the beginning they soon find themselves at the heart of the matter. thus their essential emotion, shame, becomes pivotal for the whole novel as well It seems that by exploring shame with its entire nuance, Rushdie is actually dealing with the creation of Pakistan based on a religious fervor and the consequent emerging a cannibalistic military. For Rushdie, the history of Pakistan itself is an act of shame.