英籍印裔作家萨尔曼拉什迪是当今最富盛名的后殖民文学中的代表人物之一，多元的文化身份和混杂的生命体验给他带来了观察、感受和表现世界的另类视角。20世纪80年代，他带着西方文化的烙印踏访印度的社会现实，回溯故土的文化传统；他所感受到的历史、现实与内心体验，共同熔铸了交错混杂的当代英语文学的经典之一：《午夜的孩子》。 在《午夜的孩子》一书中，拉什迪将印度文学中口头叙述的传统与西方后现代技巧完美地结合，典型地体现了后殖民主义流散美学思想。到目前为止，国内尚无《午夜的孩子》的中译本出版，出于原文阅读困难等原因，国内对于拉什迪小说的研究尚且较少。本文不求能通过文本分析论证后殖民文学的“杂交性”，而是从“小说”与“历史”的关系入手展开探讨。在小说中，拉什迪通过主人公将萨里姆的个人故事、家族历史与印度民族历史相混杂的方式，表达了他对从印度独立（1947）到紧急状态结束（1977）这一段历史的理解。 本文主体分为四部分。第一章“引言”介绍拉什迪其人其文，并就《午夜的孩子》一书中表现出的后殖民性，引出后殖民、后殖民文学等概念和近年来国内外的研究概况作以梳理。第二章抓住小说中“破碎的记忆”“寓言”语言风格等方面的创作特征来论证后殖民小说的“个人化历史”倾向。第三章就前章所述的特征，深层挖掘后殖民历史撰写的表现、目的及所产生的影响。本文认为，拉什迪的书写，是通过对民族叙事的挑战来建立起后殖民流散作家个人的身份认同。本文末章是全文的总结。

The British-Indian author Salman Rushdie is now one of the most remarkable writers with noteworthy achievements among a gallery of post-colonial writers. His multi-culture identity and abundant experience brought him a special perspective to observe，feel and express the world. During the 1980s, he visited India, seeking for the social reality and cultural tradition of his homeland and as a result of this journey, he represented us a true post-independence India in the book “Midnight’s Children” which has enjoyed great fame since its publishing. In this book, Rushdie flawlessly combines the oral narration in traditional Indian literature and many post-modern techniques origining from the West, which is believed by many critics that this novel shows typically the post-colonial characteristic. Up to now, it hasn’t been translated to Chinese and possibly because of this, the novel didn’t catch enough attention as it does in abroad. This thesis will not focus on the “hybridity” which has been specifically illustrated by many post-colonial critics; instead, the relationship between personal “story” and “history” will be the clue of my research. Rushdie successfully mixes up Saleem’s individual story with the nation’s history and through this way, he expresses his own attitudes and opinions on the forty year history from the Independence (1947) to the Emergency（1977）. The first chapter is a brief introduction of the author and his works, research background and also illusions related with concepts such as Postcolonial Literature; Chapter Two concentrates on Rushdie’s way of depicting history through specific terms such as “Fragmented Memory” and “Allergy” respectively; Chapter Three explores in a depth what is the performances, aims and effects of the postcolonial historiography. The discussion reflects that late colonialist writing aims to find words to describe their own sense of being through challenging traditional history narration using power of novels. Chapter Four is a conclusion of the above. In Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie broke the boundaries between individual story and national myth through the ways of personalizing history in forms of memories, fragments and allegories. This novel, to some extend, represents a new trend in the modern Indian English literature.