Critique of Western Modernity in Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence

Abstract

InThe Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie demands for alternative modernities to valorize premodern ethical and moral valuesas well as non-Western culture and civilization bycritiquingWestern modernist rationality exposing its exclusiveness, individualism, and monolithic vision. While doing so, Rushdie mixes up many genres within a single book and wrestles with the coloniallegacy and implication of anthropological knowledge exposing Westerner's interference upon the non-western ideology. Similarly, he exposes cosmopolitanism and hospitable values which existed in India in Mughal Akbar's time, and values of non-Western culture and civilization through his own experience.Akbar the Great, the Famous Sixteenth century Mughal emperor,championed religious tolerance and reason in India.He is presented as abrilliant military commander as well assomething of a philosopher ruler who challenges the Western modernity represented by Mogordell’Amoreand Qara Köz.