Midnight Nation

A police officer in limbo goes on a cross-country search for his soul, but encounters some mighty obstacles along the way.

A police officer in limbo goes on a cross-country search for his soul, but encounters some mighty obstacles along the way.

Neil ten Kortenaar examines the key critical concepts associated with contemporary postcolonial theory, including hybridity, mimicry, national allegory, and cosmopolitanism, through a close reading of Salman Rushdie'sMidnight's Children. He offers successive readings of Rushdie's novel - first as an allegory of history, then as a Bildungsroman and psychological study of the burgeoning of a national consciousness, and, finally, as a representation of the nation.He shows that the hybridity of Rushdie's fictional India is not created by different elements combining to form a single whole but rather by the relations among the elements: Rushdie's India is more self-conscious than are communal identities based on langua it is haunted by a dark twin called Pakistan; it is a nation in the way England is a nation, but is imagined against Engl it mistrusts the openness of Tagore's Hindu India; and it is at once cosmopolitan and a particular subjective location. The citizen in turn is imagined in terms of the nation. Saleem Sinai's heroic identification of himself with the state is beaten out of him until at the end he sees himself as the Common Man at the mercy of the state.Self, Nation, Text in Salman Rushdie's Midnight Childrenexplains the many historical and cultural references in a book that makes many demands on non-Indian readers and will be of interest to all who teach postcolonial and postmodern literature and to their students, graduate and undergraduate. Moreover, as an original argument about how nation-states are imagined and how national consciousness is formed in the citizen, it will be of interest to scholars in the area of cultural studies and postcolonial theory, whether in history, literature, cultural studies, or South Asian studies.

Il capolavoro di J. Michael Straczynski e Gary Frank in un'edizione ricca di contenuti speciali. Oltre ai dodici numeri della maxiserie, questo eBook presenta lo speciale 1/2, un’inedita postfazione del famoso scrittore e studi per la realizzazione delle tavole. L'edizione definitiva della storia di David Grey, poliziotto che dopo un incontro con alcune misteriose creature si trova in sospeso tra la vita e la morte. Accompagnato dall’enigmatica Laurel, comincerà un viaggio attraverso gli Stati Uniti per capire cosa gli è successo e cercare di recuperare l’anima.

Midnight Nation is a thought-provoking story with religious overtones about a police officer in limbo who goes on a cross-country search for his soul, but encounters some mighty obstacles along the way. When Midnight Nation was first released in 2000, J. Michael Straczynski's provocative storytelling and the fantastic art of Gary Frank (Action Comics, Squadron Supreme) captivated readers with its mix of action, horror, and drama built around a message of hope, loyalty, and sacrifice. Collected now for the first time in a deluxe, oversized hardcover, this edition includes Midnight Nation #1-12, the Wizard #1/2 issue, a spectacular cover gallery, and never-before-seen extras!

Many non-Indian readers find the historical and cultural references in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children demanding. In his close reading of the novel, Neil ten Kortenaar offers post-colonial literary strategies for understanding Midnight's Children that also challenge some of the prevailing interpretations of the novel. Using hybridity, mimicry, national allegory, and cosmopolitanism, all key critical concepts of postcolonial theory, ten Kortenaar reads Midnight's Children as an allegory of history, as a Bildungsroman and psychological study of a burgeoning national consciousness, and as a representation of the nation. He shows that the hybridity of Rushdie's fictional India is not created by different elements forming a whole but by the relationship among them. Self, Nation, Text in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children also makes an original argument about how nation-states are imagined and how national consciousness is formed in the citizen. The protagonist, Saleem Sinai, heroically identifies himself with the state, but this identification is beaten out of him until, in the end, he sees himself as the Common Man at the mercy of the state. Ten Kortenaar reveals Rushdie's India to be more self-conscious than many communal identities based on language: it is an India haunted by a dark twin called Pakistan; a nation in the way England is a nation but imagined against England. Mistrusting the openness of Tagore's Hindu India, it is both cosmopolitan and a specific subjective location.

“Let me say to President Botha: apartheid is doomed! It has been condemned in the councils of God, rejected by every nation on the planet and is no longer believed in by the people who gave it birth. Apartheid is the god that has failed . . . let not one more sacred life be offered on its blood-stained altar.” This is what Bishop Peter Storey preached in 1986 in the darkest hours of black suffering in a South Africa torn apart by racial oppression. Join him as a youthful chaplain to Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, defying armed police entering his pulpit, heading the SA Council of Churches with Bishop Desmond Tutu, leading 25,000 marchers against Johannesburg’s secret police headquarters, and confronting Winnie Mandela’s wrongs. Storey’s ministry was shaped by one simple question: “What does it mean to obey Jesus in apartheid South Africa?” This book tells of his answer and challenges the silence of American churches in the face of nationalism, systemic racism, and right-wing populism in the USA.

Ronald Kitchen was 21, on his way to buy milk for his four-year-old, when he was picked up by the Chicago police, brutally tortured, and coerced to confess to five counts of heinous murder. He spent 22 years in prison, 13 of those on death row. Kitchen was only one of the many victims of Jon Burge and his notorious Midnight Crew—118 others have come forward so far. Kitchen cofounded the Death Row 10 from his maximum security cellblock and fought together with those men to expose the grave injustices that led to their wrongful convictions. The Death Row 10 appeared on nationwide media and, with the help of lawyers and activists outside, were instrumental in turning the tide against the death penalty in Illinois. Kitchen was finally exonerated in 2013 and filed a high profile lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department, Jon Burge, Mayor Richard Daley, and the Cook County state's attorney. Largely absent from the current social justice narratives are the testimonies of the victims themselves. Kitchen is a survivor who has turned his suffering into a powerful public cause. The atrocities of the Midnight Crew have been brought to light through Kitchen's work and are now part of the discussion as the nation engages in an unprecedented conversation about racism.

A few bloody months in South Asia during the summer of 1947 explain the world that troubles us today.

Winner of the Booker prize and twice winner of the Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children is "one of the most important books to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation" (New York Review of Books). Reissued for the 40th anniversary of the original publication--with a new introduction from the author--Salman Rushdie's widely acclaimed novel is a masterpiece in literature. Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts. This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Midnight’s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.