INTRODUCTION

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The analogy between Politics and Literature as "two natural rivals fighting for the same territory, Reality " will be the main concern of this essay, taking as evidence Salman Rushdie and the most representative novel of his political and aesthetic ideologies : Midnight's Children. Rushdie becomes a politician in his attempt to redefine Reality according to his principles of Freedom and Relativity ; but he must do it as a writer, using literary tools : STORY-TELLING and WORDS. In this sense, it has surprised me very much that conception of the writer as a kind of magician able to give existence (just by writing or telling) to a Fictional Reality many times much more coherent and credible that real reality itself. After locating Salman Rushdie inside the context of Contemporary British Fiction, will be analysed his political ideologies (based on an UTOPIA in which Freedom and Tolerance are possible), and his aesthetic values : the techniques of Magic Realism ; the play with Reality and Fiction, and with naturalistic and experimental elements ; the final result : an hybrid between history and fantasy ; and the self-consciousness of the Creative Process itself. A piece of work full of dualism (Reality/ Fiction ; True/False ; to be/ to appear ; History/ Fantasy ; etc.), but governed at the end by BALANCE and ORDER, is what I have tried to highlight throughout the following pages.