This site is not a substitute for reading Midnight's Children's-the novel is one of the great works of the last quarter century and should be experienced on its own terms. The Multimedia Study Environment is a supplement to the text and is most recommended for those who have finished the novel and wish to further enrich their understanding of Midnight's Children's. (All excerpts and references to the novel are from the Penguin 1991 edition; an excellent way to take advantage of the MSE is to have this edition of the novel with you while using the site.)

The novel Midnight's Children's is full of cultural and historical references and literary themes that not only contribute to an exciting reading experience but offer jumping-off points for a variety of discourses that go beyond the text. In order to allow readers reflect upon the dynamism of this story, the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) has selected a significant number of sections from Midnight's Children's and annotated them based on the major literary and historical and cultural events that appear throughout the book. These annotations are represented in two formats: text and video. The text annotations for the MSE were written by Columbia University history and literature graduate students, who were selected by faculty nomination. Some of these annotations are purely informational, in that they provide background on historical figures or definitions of cultural terms, but others are more interpretive, discussing particular structural motifs or narrative strategies in the novel which are open to interpretation.

The experience of the play portion of this site differs slightly from that of the novel. Selections from the script were made to highlight changes, omissions and additions in the process of adapting the novel into the script. To help identify these points, we have generated annotations that were written by a graduate of the School of the Arts and a playwright and a dramaturge, as well as video excerpts, as noted above, from Columbia faculty and members of London's Royal Shakespeare Company. We believe that, as in the case of the complete text of the novel, the MSE is best utilized alongside the play script, which is the published version of the play (Vintage 2003). The site is also valuable to students who wish to learn more about how a play is transformed from the ideas of the director, the creative team and the playwright into what is actually experienced by an audience. CCNMTL, with the participation of the RSC, has compiled numerous video interviews with the cast and the creative and production teams and embedded them in related areas of the script, which will give the user an intimate understanding of what it means to mount a theatrical production.

If you wish to access information related to the novel or the play in a more encyclopedic form, you can find all the annotations (text and video) in our assets menu. In addition, there is a glossary listing the names of the characters in Midnight's Children's, as well as a time line of major milestones in Indian history and in the story.

This Multimedia Study Environment provides:

  • Excerpts from the Midnight's Children's novel and play script, organized into 10 intersections of space and time
  • More than 100 video clips with expert commentary, including:
    • SALMAN RUSHDIE: Traveling through India and Storytelling; Historical Method; García Márquez; Saleem Scene in Café Midnight's Children's Concept of Space and Multitudes; The Jungle; The Perforated Sheet; On Shiva; Pickling and the Comic Aspect of Midnight's Children's
    • PETER AWN: Religious Myth
    • AKEEL BILGRAMI: Child of Midnight/Child of Emergency
    • PARTHA CHATTERJEE: The Government of India Act
    • AMIT CHAUDHURI: Rushdie's Use of the Fantastic
    • DENNIS DALTON: Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru
    • NICHOLAS DIRKS: World War I and the Amritsar Massacre
    • ANUPAMA RAO: Memory and Intimate History
    • SAEED SHAFQAT: On Rushdie's Pakistan
    • GAYATRI SPIVAK: Rushdie's Representation of Women
    • NEGUIN YAVARI: The British "Divide and Rule" Strategy
  • Video interviews with the director Tim Supple, the designer Melly Still and other key members of the Royal Shakespeare Company's creative team
  • Video footage captured in London of rehearsals leading to the final dress rehearsal at the Barbican Theatre
  • Additional resources such as costume sketches and lighting-design schematics
  • More than 300 historical, literary and dramaturgic annotations
  • More than 150 archival photographs and video clips