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Topic

Knowledge Gathered from Joseph Anton: Freedom and the Nation Through the Lens of Ideal and Real

Department of English

Date & location

• Monday, August 18, 2025
• 11:00 A.M.
• Clearihue Building, Room C214

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Stephen Ross, Department of English, ßÉßɱ¬ÁÏ (Supervisor)
• Dr. Corinne Bancroft, Department of English, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Neilesh Bose, Department of History, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Athena Madan, Department of Sociology, UVic

Chair of Oral Examination

• Prof. Ajtony Csaba, School of Music, UVic

Abstract

Because of Salman Rushdie’s experience with a restricted life resulting from the national bans on both his books and freedom of movement after the controversy around The Satanic Verses, Joseph Anton: A Memoir demonstrates a vested interest in articulating the author’s ideas about freedom and the nation. While Rushdie envisions or conceptualizes freedom and nationhood in an idealized, universal, and flawless way, the reality contradicts, questions, and sometimes invalidates the conceptual ideals. Thus, knowing about Rushdie’s ideals about freedom and the nation is potentially different from navigating or knowing about the realities, which shape those ideals. Although Rushdie’s idealized freedom and nationhood inform about a universally good world, the reality provides knowledge about the underlying complexities and unresolvable dilemmas, which question the universality of such goodness. The thesis has examined how the gap between the ideal and real unfolds in Rushdie’s discussion about freedom and the nation. The thesis places the sense of universal moral goodness entertained by Rushdie’s ideals against the complex and conflicting real-world troubles; and argues that knowledge gained from Rushdie’s ideal world cannot dictate the real-world undertakings because of the latter’s tendency to embrace change and to respond to situational demands, which contributes to the creation of a different kind of knowledge. To reach this end, the thesis mainly analyzes Joseph Anton in detail preceded by the brief conceptual outlines of freedom and the nation’s essentially problematic nature and the critics’ opinions on the memoir’s deliberate and strategic narrative to uphold certain truths over others.