Culture and Ethics in Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence
Abstract
Salman Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence (2008) tells the story of a princess of the Mughal dynasty and how her name is effaced from history. The narrative, mixing historical facts with fiction, depicts the princess’s perilous journey across continents in her search to find a home. Following Steven Shankman’s reading of Emmanuel Levinas, in whose work the primacy of ethics over ontology requires that we take responsibility for the Other, (Shankman, 2010: 15–16), this paper traces the trajectory of Rushdie’s text that represents, through the character of Akbar, the primacy of ethics as both before and beyond culture.
Keywords
ethics, proximity, Mughal Empire, religious tolerance, culture of inclusion, syncretisationReferences
ABULAD, ROMUALDO E. (2009). “Philosophy and Politics: Do They Mix?” Phavisminda Journal, Vol. 8, May: 1-18.
BURGGRAEVE, ROGER (2014). “THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DIALOGUE: The Challenges of Interconvictional Dialogue according to Emmanuel Levinas.” Source: “Dialogue of Transcendence: A Levinasian Perspective on the Anthropological-Ethical Conditions for Interreligious Dialogue”, Journal of Communication & Religion, Vol. 37, Nr. 1, Spring: 2-28. <https://theo.kuleuven.be/apps/press/ecsi/files/2019/04/15.-LEVINAS-Burggraeve-SIGNIFICANCE-OF-DIALOGUE-ECSIP-Queensland-AUSTRALIA-6-6-17-TEXT-pdf.pdf> accessed 01 June 2021.
JORISSEN, ENGELBERT (2009). “Travelling through times and spaces: Making to meet Akbar with Machiavelli. Some considerations about Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence”. Departmental Bulletin Paper. Kyoto University. <https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac. jp/ dspace/bitstream/2433/71159/1/54_Jorissen.pdf> (accessed 12 June 2021 at 13:05).
LEVINAS, EMMANUEL (1985) Ethics and Infinity : Conversations with Philippe Nemo. Translated by Richard A. Cohen. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
LEVINAS, EMMANUEL (1987) Collected Philosophical Works. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
LEVINAS, EMMANUEL (1998) Totality Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. 13. printing 1998. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
LEVINAS, EMMANUEL(2005) Humanismus des anderen Menschen. Übersetzt und mit einer Einleitung versehen von Ludwig Wenzler. Mit einem Gespräch zwischen Emmanuel Levinas und Christoph von Wolzogen als Anhang "Intention, Ereignis und der Andere". Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag.
LEVINAS, EMMANUEL (2011) Otherwise than being, or, Beyond essence. [Autrement qu'etre.] 9. Printing 2011. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO. The Prince. To the great Lorenzo Di Piero De Medici. <https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/readers/mid-frequency-graded-readers/Prince-Adapted2.pdf> (accessed 09 June 2021)
OSBORNE, THOMAS (2017) “Machiavelli and the liberalism of fear:” History of the Human Sciences 1-18. Reprints and permission: sagepub.co. uk/journalsPermissions.nav. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695117723223.
RUSHDIE, SALMAN (2008) The Enchantress of Florence. London: Jonathan Cape.
Published
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2023 Jogamaya Bayer

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.