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School of Humanities and Sciences Volume 5 Number 1 Spring 2004 |
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Crossing the Line with Salman Rushdie
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  President Peggy Williams and Dean Howard Erlich with Salman Rushdie |
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On November 3, 2003, English major Dina Schiff '05 discovered the precise spot where interdisciplinary study and human reality collide. That day, as a student in Professor Michael Twomey's medieval literature class, Schiff found herself sitting face-to-face with a legend, Salman Rushdie.
Rushdie may not be the first name that comes to mind in the study of medieval literature. Nor is he the typical guest one expects in an undergraduate classroom. Yet there he was, in conversation with Schiff and 60 other Ithaca English and writing students, conducting a master class that deftly crossed the lines between literature, history, religion, and modern politics. Said Schiff, "It was a remarkable experience."
Rushdie was on campus as part of the Distinguished Speaker in the Humanities Series, sponsored by the School of Humanities and Sciences. In its fourth season, the program brings divergent voices to campus to foster intellectual discourse among students, faculty, and the community. Rushdie was selected for the distinguished speaker program because his diverse opinions on literature, religion, intellectual freedom, and world affairs define him as an interdisciplinary thinker.
"He is eclectic, interesting, insightful, and serious," said Dean Howard Erlich, "which is what the humanities reflect as well."
Rushdie's presentation, "Step across This Line," was titled after the most recent of his 15 books, a 2003 collection of articles and essays. His presentation examined the changing moral, metaphorical, and physical frontiers of the modern world, a worldview shaped on a personal level by his profound intellect and his experience surviving a decade of isolation and fear.
For almost 10 years following the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses, Rushdie was forced into hiding, the result of the infamous fatwa issued against him by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. Today Rushdie stands as an intelligent and enlightened rebuttal to the grotesque forces aligned against intellectual freedom and free expression everywhere. An audience of 1,300 packed Ben Light Gymnasium to hear him speak.
"If people do not have the power to remake the great stories of how we lived, then, quite simply, we don't live in a free society," Rushdie told the Ithaca audience. "If we lose the power to tell the great narratives, then they stop being beautiful descriptions of the truth. They become prisons and we become prisoners within them."
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This is part of what resonated with Schiff and the rest of her medieval literature class when they met Rushdie for the master class following his formal presentation. Rushdie bases much of his fictional work on classic myth, retelling the great stories of the past to illuminate new truths of the present. He also writes eloquently of cultural dislocation, cultural intolerance, and, more importantly, cultural tolerance. In those respects he shares much in common with the medieval authors Schiff and her classmates were studying.
"They tie together perfectly," she said. "It was fascinating to hear his perspectives on literature and other authors."
It was also entertaining. Rushdie's keen wit and irreverent humor surprised many who spoke with him.
"He was talking about writing, about referencing another work to add power to your own," Schiff reported. "He joked, 'Steal the good stuff.'"
Professors who met Rushdie in the faculty session were likewise taken by his wit, his broad intellect, and his ability to think on his feet. Twomey, who not only attended the faculty and student sessions but also introduced Rushdie at his public address, found the author "enormously fascinating."
"His influence goes beyond that of a public intellectual to that of a cultural prophet," Twomey said. "His perspective comes with moral authority; he doesn't let you rest comfortably in your beliefs."
Just as Rushdie's work blurs the lines between literature, history, fantasy, mythology, and religion, his presence on campus challenged those who met him to cross the line from intellectualism to human action. Schiff counted herself among them.
"When you meet someone like that, it humanizes them," she said. "They're no longer just a famous author, they become real -- a person. You go from thinking, 'I wish I could do something like that,' to thinking, 'I really could do that.'"
Thought into action, lines crossed -- it's the Ithaca humanities experience, defined. HS