Salman Rushdie, Migration and the View “From Below”

Authors:

Pages: 373-386
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/EGVO7670

Abstract:

The figure of the bird-man, which acquires a very particular and literal shape with the event of the airplane and the beginning of the twentieth century, becomes a frequently revisited controversial topos in the attempts to define the prevailing moods of that period. Some of its most conspicuous identifications include those of Italian poet and fight pilot Gabriele d’Annunzio, his follower Lauro de Bosis and Franz Kafka whose readings of the myth contribute to the inauguration of the twentieth century as the “age of Icarus” (Farrell 1993) registering its capacity to real both the “euphoric” and “tragically-mundane” prospects of flying. A much later interpretation of the myth suggests a significant shift of vision from these previous attitudes of commemoration or negligence of Icarus’s fall towards a more dynamic perspective. What makes Icarus’s itinerary a relevant route in the postcolonial articulation of migration is, above all, its capacity to represent the processes of rupture, disconnection and transformation of the migrant body (and identity) that take place in the course of migration.

Keywords:

migration, Icarus, catoptric representation, homelessness, hybridity

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