Author, text and cultural meaning: Vijay Mishra’s Salman Rushdie and the Genesis of Secrecy

Vijay Mishra's meticulous analysis of the Rushdie Emory Archive - Salman Rushdie and the Genesis of Secrecy - is one of the most significant paperbacks to have been released in humanities publishing in 2021 (originally published in hardback in 2019). In one sense this book might be understood as a literary project, one that enriches understanding of the Rushdie's published works through the perspectives gained from close reading and detailed cross-referencing of Emory's extensive collection of the author's personal papers, unpublished manuscripts, digital materials and ephemera. However, to categorise The Genesis of Secrecy simply in terms of its literary credentials would be to overlook its conceptual and methodological value to wider areas of culture and media research. With this broader frame in mind, this review essay considers the book from an interdisciplinary perspective.