Finding Displacement through Incest in Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath her Feet and Fury

Abstract

Incest is a widespread theme in literature that continues to grow in frequency (Barnes 3). It is rarely addressed amongst scholars due to being a taboo topic, but in this thesis I aim to address it and analyze it thoroughly in two novels. Though at times subtle, it is a reoccurring theme in Indian literature, and more specifically, in works by Salman Rushdie. I argue that Rushdie intentionally includes instances of incest in his works to illustrate displacement felt by postcolonial India. This thesis analyzes two of his texts, The Ground Beneath her Feet and Fury, and identifies the instances of this particular taboo.