Études Britanniques Contemporaines (Apr 2016)
Heir to the Enlightenment: Memorial Writing and Commitment in Joseph Anton, by Salman Rushdie
Abstract
In his 2012 memoir, Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie provides a third-person account of the period between 1988 and 2002, when he was the most wanted writer on earth. This article purports to study the historiographical project at the heart of Rushdie’s text, revealing its ambiguities as he tries to reclaim his own personal story. Furthermore, the memoir bears testimony to the very meaning of commitment: it considers the passage from the theory to the practice of political commitment for an artist, thus interrogating the conditions of public action in the name of ideas in contemporary world affairs.
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