The Enchantress of Florence is a dreamlike novel that weaves fact and fiction so tightly together that it's hard

to distinguish between them. Yes, Florence existed with all the Medici pomp and papal flames that Rushdie describes. Ancient India, too, flourished with gilt and concubines under the rule of Akbar in the 15th century. In both India and Italy, this was a time for great achievements- from art to war and everything in between. It was also the era of exploration: Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, whose cousin plays a major role in this book, had just crashed into the New World. It makes sense, then, that Rushdie would start his novel with a voyage. A blond man in a ridiculous coat comes from afar to Akbar's India. This man assumes many names to hide his secret - that is, his lineage. The story that unfolds reveals much about violence, love, pain and the human imagination. It also deals with history and, particularly brilliantly, with the predicament of women throughout history. One woman, the Enchantress of Florence, weaves her way from land to land, and Rushdie follows her like a lovesick boy. It allows him to connect worlds that never connected in history.1 There is a strong theme of sex and eroticism, much of it surrounding the Enchantress of the book's title, who was inspired by the Renaissance poem Orlando Furioso. There is also a recurring discussion of humanism and debate as opposed to authoritarianism, and Machiavelli is a character in the book. Like Rushdie's previous works, the book can be considered a work of magic realism.

LAURA JAMES JULY 16TH, 2008 LIT

The Mughal Empire The great grandson of Tamerlane, Babar, who on his mother's side was descended from the famous Genghiz Khan, came to India in 1526 at the request of an Indian governor who sought Babar's help in his fight against Ibrahim Lodi, the last head of the Delhi Sultanate. Babar defeated Lodi at Panipat, not far from Delhi, and so came to establish the Mughal Empire in India. Babar ruled until 1530, and was succeeded by his son Humayun, who gave the empire its first distinctive features. But it is Humayun's son, Akbar the Great, who is conventionally described as the glory of the empire. Akbar reigned from 1556 to 1605, and extended his empire as far to the west as Afghanistan, and as far south as the Godavari river. Akbar, though a Muslim, is remembered as a tolerant ruler, and he even started a new faith, Din-i-Ilahi, which was an attempt to blend Islam with Hinduism, Christianity, Jainism, and other faiths. He won over the Hindus by naming them to important military and civil positions, by conferring honours upon them, and by marrying a Hindu princess. Akbar was succeeded by his son Salim, who took the title of Jahangir. In his reign (1605-1627), Jahangir consolidated the gains made by his father. The courtly culture of the Mughals flourished under his rule; like his great grandfather, Babar, he had an interest in gardens, and Mughal painting probably reached its zenith in Jahangir's time. Jahangir married Nur Jahan, "Light of the World", in 1611. Shortly after his death in October 1627, his son, Shah Jahan, succeeded to the throne. He inherited a vast and rich empire; and at midcentury this was perhaps the greatest empire in the world, exhibiting a degree of centralized control rarely matched before. Shah Jahan left behind an extraordinarily rich architectural legacy, which includes the Taj Mahal and the old city of Delhi, Shahjahanabad. As he apparently lay dying in 1658, a war of succession broke out between his four sons. The two principal claimants to the throne were Dara Shikoh, who was championed by the those nobles and officers who were committed to the eclectic policies of previous rulers, and Aurangzeb,

who was favoured by powerful men more inclined to turn the Mughal Empire into an Islamic state subject to the laws of the Sharia. It is Aurangzeb who triumphed, and though the Mughal Empire saw yet further expansion in the early years of his long reign (1658-1707), by the later part of the seventeenth century the empire was beginning to disintegrate. Aurangzeb remains a highly controversial figure, and no monarch has been more subjected to the communalist reading of Indian history. He is admired by Muslim historians for enforcing the law of the Sharia and for disavowing the policies pursued by Akbar; among Hindus, laymen and historians alike, he is remembered as a Muslim fanatic and bigot. In the event, Aurangzeb's far-flung empire eventually eluded his grasp, and considerable disaffection appears to have been created among the peasantry. After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, many of his vassals established themselves as sovereign rulers, and so began the period of what are called "successor states". The Mughal Empire survived until 1857, but its rulers were, after 1803, pensioners of the East India Company. The last emperor, the senile Bahadur Shah Zafar, was put on trial for allegedly leading the rebels of the 1857 mutiny and for fomenting sedition. He was convicted and transported to Rangoon, to spend the remainder of his life on alien soil.

Renaissance Florence The Italian Renaissance was a time of rebirth. The era was exemplified by experimentation in government, art, psychology and sociology. Florence was the city at the forefront of all of these developments. At the birth of Florence as an Italian Renaissance city-state is the medieval papacy. The Holy Roman Empire was constantly at war with the papacy, weakening its hold upon the regions that it governed. Slowly, Florence and other urban centres in Italy formed autonomous city-states that closely resembled those of the ancient Greeks. These city-states were rich urban centres whose elite class had the money, freedom and time to explore the arts. Young Florence was ruled by rich merchants and aristocracy. The Italian city-states were not only plagued by internal battle between the classes, but also between each other. City-states waged wars against each other to gain control of the Mediterranean. It was these battles that spawned experimentation in government. The Florentines explored republicanism and humanism. Humanism played a large role in the Florentine republic. It was an intellectual movement that strongly influenced the psychology of early Florentine government. The movement encompassed man and how he related to the world. Gone were the days of medieval fate-driven existence. Humans suddenly awoke to a new world where the future wasnt written for them. People no longer saw involvement in the arts as blasphemous, nor did they see education as only something limited to the clergy. Petrarch, often considered to be one of the fathers of Humanism, established the belief that humanism was a civic duty. Humanism and higher philosophy concerned not only the government officials, but also the general populace. In this way, Florences emphasis on humanism as a civic duty is much like Greeces emphasis on the polis as an ideal way of life.

By the middle of the fifteenth century, Florence was a thriving city-state with a population of 60,000. Its ruling body consisted mainly of twelve rich merchant guilds that congregated at the Palazzo Vecchio to vote and discuss city issues. Florence found its wealth in commerce and industry, not in land holdings as earlier societies had. The Florentine republic discovered techniques that are characteristic of modern diplomacy, such as the establishment of embassies, intelligence reports, balance of power and alliances with other city-states. The most famous of these alliances was the Peace of Lodi, established in part by a then rich Florentine banker, Cosimo Medici. The Peace of Lodi successfully stopped the constant warring between city-states, establishing a peace that lasted until the invasion of King Charles VIII. Boiling under the surface were the condottieri, despotic rulers, who sought to take control of the young city-states and re-establish one-man rule. Out of all of the powerful Italian city-states, Florence was one that held out the longest. But even Florence fell to despotic rule, eventually, with the rise of the Medici family. The Medici family rule effectively began with Cosimo Medici who took over his fathers bank in 1429. Within five years, he gained significant political power in Florence, but it wasnt until his grandson, Lorenzo, destroyed the Florentine republican constitution in 1480 that the Medici family rule was solidified. The Medici family established a hereditary monarchy in Florence, the successors of Lorenzo having ruled until they were kicked out of Florence by Girolamo Savonarola in 1494. The Medici family contributed to Florence in many ways. With the rise of a hereditary monarchy came a change in public philosophy. No longer considered a civic duty, humanism became a movement that applied to aristocrats the royal family. With ruling power out of the hands of the public, it was now the sole duty of the ruling class to live up to humanist ideals of morality, ethics and learning.

Florence was a clear leader in all realms of Renaissance art, including sculpture, architecture and painting. The city-state gave birth to such names as Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael Santi. At the root of Renaissance art was the rejection of medieval Gothic art and the rebirth of ancient Grecian art. Medieval art was concerned with somber spiritual themes, and while Renaissance art was still concerned with the spiritual aspect of things, it expressed a sense of control over ones own destiny that medieval art did not have. In this way, humanism pervaded Renaissance art. This new art form was called the International Style. Filippo Brunellesci led the Florentine classical revival. He was an architect who successfully developed the use of perspective in art and explained it in mathematical terms. He is known for his work on the Bapistry doors, as well as his crucifix that resides in St. Maria Novella. Leonardo da Vinci, a late Renaissance artist, is most commonly known for the Mona Lisa, but he was also an engineer and a scientist. Although he was not born in Florence, he contributed to Florentine art and life. It was in Florence that Leonardo began his apprenticeship in 1466 with Andrea del Verrocchio. He went on to travel throughout the Italian city-states, spreading his knowledge of human anatomy, mechanics, engineering and, of course, art. The Florentine artists of the Renaissance were experimentalists in every sense of the word. They personalized art, and sought to explain it scientifically. Florence was a shining example of the best of the Italian Renaissance. In politics Florence thrived, fostering new intellectual movements, such as humanism, as well as experimentation in governmental administration. Much of modern government and society stands on the shoulders of Florentine giants. The strong rule of the Medici family kept Florence in the forefront of the Renaissance, and established a peace between the city-states that lasted over 40 years. Florence excelled artistically, as well. Well-known artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael Santi, found their footing as Florentine

apprentices. Sculptors and architects, such as Filippo Brunellesci, gave to the world beautiful pieces of art that stand to this day, a tribute to their skill and craftsmanship. Florence was the epitome of Italian Renaissance glory.

Magical Realism A literary mode rather than a distinguishable genre, magical realism aims to seize the paradox of the union of opposites. For instance, it challenges polar opposites like life and death and the pre-colonial past versus the post-industrial present. Magical realism is characterized by two conflicting perspectives, one based on a rational view of reality and the other on the acceptance of the supernatural as prosaic reality. According to Angel Flores, magical realism involves the fusion of the real and the fantastic, or as he claims, "an amalgamation of realism and fantasy". The presence of the supernatural in magical realism is often connected to the primeval or "magical Indian mentality, which exists in conjunction with European rationality. Characteristics of Magical Realism HybridityMagical realists incorporate many techniques that have been linked to post-colonialism, with hybridity being a primary feature. Specifically, magical realism is illustrated in the inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous. The plots of magical realist works involve issues of borders, mixing, and change. Authors establish these plots to reveal a crucial purpose of magical realism: a more deep and true reality than conventional realist techniques would illustrate. Irony Regarding Authors PerspectiveThe writer must have ironic distance from the magical world view for the realism not to be compromised. Simultaneously, the writer must strongly respect the magic, or else the magic dissolves into simple folk belief or complete fantasy, split from the real instead of synchronized with it. The term "magic" relates to the fact that the point of view that the text depicts explicitly is not adopted according to the implied world view of the author. As Gonzales Echevarria expresses, the act of distancing oneself from the beliefs held by a certain social group makes it impossible to be thought of as a representative of that society.

Authorial ReticenceAuthorial reticence refers to the lack of clear opinions about the accuracy of events and the credibility of the world views expressed by the characters in the text. This technique promotes acceptance in magical realism. In magical realism, the simple act of explaining the supernatural would eradicate its position of equality regarding a persons conventional view of reality. Because it would then be less valid, the supernatural world would be discarded as false testimony. The Supernatural and NaturalIn magical realism, the supernatural is not displayed as questionable. While the reader realizes that the rational and irrational are opposite and conflicting polarities, they are not disconcerted because the supernatural is integrated within the norms of perception of the narrator and characters in the fictional world. Hybridity The idea of nation is often based on naturalised myths of racial or cultural origin. Asserting such myths was a very important part of the imperial process and therefore an important feature of much imperial writing and indeed postcolonial writing. The need for commonality of thought to encourage resistance became a feature of many of the first postcolonial novels. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is an example of a novel dealing with the collective resistance to imperialism. More recently we have become aware of how problematic such accounts are. The simple binaries that made up imperial and postcolonial studies have in some way become redundant with regard to later literature. As Mudrooroo has said of the Aborigine's , they were a tribe like any other, susceptible to change and influence from outside forces. He says; the Aboriginal writer is a Janus-type figure with a face turned to the past and the other to the future while existing in a postmodern, multi cultural Australia in which he or she must fight for cultural space. So in a sense Mudrooroo embraces his hybridised position not as a badge of failure or denigration, but as a part of the contestational weave of cultures.

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One of the most disputed terms in postcolonial studies, hybridity' commonly refers to the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonisation. Hybridisation takes many forms including cultural, political and linguistic. Pidgin and Creole are linguistic examples. Within languages there can also be evidence of linguistic cross breeding' and the use of loan words from either the language of the coloniser or the colonised. Examples can be seen in Swahili, Aborigine and Irish. The coloniser's language cannot escape and one sees the many loan words in the English language today. In Ireland for example, there are many sayings and words in English that an English man or woman would not understand. For example the use of the word amadan' meaning fool'. Labelled Hiberno-English, it is a typical example of linguistic hybridisation. Robert Young, a widely written commentator on imperialism and

postcolonialism, has remarked on the negativity sometimes associated with the term hybridity. He notes how it was influential in imperial and colonial discourse in giving damaging reports on the union of different races. Young would argue that at the turn of the century, hybridity' had become part of a colonialist discourse of racism. In Jean Rhys ' Wide Sargasso Sea, to be a Creole or a hybrid' was essentially negative. They were reported in the book as lazy and the dangers of such hybrids inevitably reverting to their primitive' traditions is highlighted throughout the novel. In reading Young alongside Rhys, it becomes easy to see the negative connotations that the term once had. However, the crossover inherent in the imperial experience is essentially a twoway process. According to Ashcroft most postcolonial writing has focused on the hybridised nature of postcolonial culture as a strength rather than a weakness. It is not a case of the oppressor obliterating the oppressed or the coloniser silencing the colonised. In practice it stresses the mutuality of the process. The clash of cultures can impact as much upon the coloniser as the colonised. In reading Juanita Carberry , the daughter of a settler in the White Valley region in

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Kenya, one gets a taste of the hybridised nature of her childhood and her life. Growing up a Swahili speaker and playing with the wild animals against her father's wishes, her experience was essentially more African than English. It is proof that even under the most potent of oppression, that distinctive aspects of the culture of the oppressed can survive and become an integral part of the new formations which arise. Ashcroft says how hybridity and the power it releases may well be seen as the characteristic feature and contribution of the postcolonial, allowing a means of evading the replication of the binary categories of the past and developing new anti-monolithic models of cultural exchange and growth. The term hybridity has been most recently associated with Homi Bhabha . In his piece entitled Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences', Bhaba stresses the interdependence of coloniser and colonised. Bhabha argues that all cultural systems and statements are constructed in what he calls the Third Space of Enunciation'. In accepting this argument, we begin to understand why claims to the inherent purity and originality of cultures are untenable'. Bhaba urges us into this space in an effort to open up the notion of an international culture not based on exoticism or multi-culturalism of the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation of culture's hybridity. In bringing this to the next stage, Bhabha hopes that it is in this space that we will find those words with which we can speak of Ourselves and Others. And by exploring this Third Space', we may elude the politics of polarity and emerge as the others of ourselves. So as Mudrooroo suggests, embracing the hybridised nature of cultures steers us away from the problematic binarisms that have until now framed our notions of culture.

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Post-Colonialism: Definition, Development and Examples from India Post-colonialism is an intellectual direction (sometimes also called an era or the post-colonial theory) that exists since around the middle of the 20th century. It developed from and mainly refers to the time after colonialism. The post-colonial direction was created as colonial countries became independent. Nowadays, aspects of post-colonialism can be found not only in sciences concerning history, literature and politics, but also in approach to culture and identity of both the countries that were colonised and the former colonial powers. However, post-colonialism can take the colonial time as well as the time after colonialism into consideration. The term decolonisation seems to be of particular importance while talking about post-colonialism. In this case it means an intellectual process that persistently transfers the independence of former-colonial countries into peoples minds. The basic idea of this process is the deconstruction of oldfashioned perceptions and attitudes of power and oppression that were adopted during the time of colonialism. First attempts to put this long-term policy of decolonising the minds into practice could be regarded in the Indian population after India became independent from the British Empire in 1947. However, post-colonialism has increasingly become an object of scientific examination since 1950 when Western intellectuals began to get interested in the Third World countries. In the seventies, this interest lead to an integration of discussions about post-colonialism in various study courses at American Universities. Nowadays it also plays a remarkable role at European Universities. A major aspect of post-colonialism is the rather violent-like, unbuffered contact or clash of cultures as an inevitable result of former colonial times; the relationship of the colonial power to the (formerly) colonised country, its

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population and culture and vice versa seems extremely ambiguous and contradictory. This contradiction of two clashing cultures and the wide scale of problems resulting from it must be regarded as a major theme in post-colonialism: For centuries the colonial suppressor often had been forcing his civilised values on the natives. But when the native population finally gained independence, the colonial relicts were still omnipresent, deeply integrated in the natives minds and were supposed to be removed. So decolonisation is a process of change, destruction and, in the first place, an attempt to regain and lose power. While natives had to learn how to put independence into practice, colonial powers had to accept the loss of power over foreign countries. However, both sides have to deal with their past as suppressor and suppressed. This complicated relationship mainly developed from the Eurocentric perspective from which the former colonial powers saw themselves: Their colonial policy was often criticised as arrogant, ignorant, brutal and simply nave. Their final colonial failure and the total independence of the once suppressed made the process of decolonisation rather tense and emotional. Post-colonialism also deals with conflicts of identity and cultural belonging. Colonial powers came to foreign states and destroyed main parts of native tradition and culture; furthermore, they continuously replaced them with their own ones. This often led to conflicts when countries became independent and suddenly faced the challenge of developing a new nationwide identity and selfconfidence. As generations had lived under the power of colonial rulers, they had more or less adopted their Western tradition and culture. The challenge for these countries was to find an individual way of proceeding to call their own. They

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could not get rid of the Western way of life from one day to the other; they could not manage to create a completely new one either. On the other hand, former colonial powers had to change their self-assessment. This paradox identification process seems to be what decolonisation is all about, while post-colonialism is the intellectual direction that deals with it and maintains a steady analysis from both points of view. So how is this difficult process of decolonisation being done? By the power of language, even more than by the use of military violence. Language is the intellectual means by which post-colonial communication and reflection takes place. This is particularly important as most colonial powers tried to integrate their language, the major aspect of their civilised culture, in foreign societies. A lot of Indian books that can be attached to the era of post-colonialism, for instance, are written in English. The cross-border exchange of thoughts from both parties of the post-colonial conflict is supported by the use of a shared language. To give a conclusion of it all, one might say that post-colonialism is a vivid discussion about what happened with the colonial thinking at the end of the colonial era. What legacy arouse from this era? What social, cultural and economical consequences could be seen and are still visible today? In these contexts, one examines alternating experiences of suppression, resistance, gender, migration and so forth. While doing so, both the colonising and colonised side are taken into consideration and related to each other. The main target of post-colonialism remains the same: To review and to deconstruct onesided, worn-out attitudes in a lively discussion of colonisation.

The post-colonial experience in India

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In the 16th century, European powers began to conquer small outposts along the Indian coast. Portugal, the Netherlands and France ruled different regions in India before the British East India Company was founded in 1756. The British colonialists managed to control most parts of India while ruling the key cities Calcutta, Madras and Bombay as the main British bases. However, there still remained a few independent regions (Kashmir among others) whose lords were loyal to the British Empire. In 1857, the first big rebellion took place in the north of India. The incident is also named First war of Indian Independence, the Sepoy Rebellion or the Indian Mutiny, depending on the individual perspective. This was the first time Indians rebelled in massive numbers against the presence and the rule of the British in South Asia. The rebellion failed and the British colonialists continued their rule. In 1885, the National Indian Congress (popularly called Congress) was founded. It demanded that the Indians should have their proper legitimate share in the government. From then on, the Congress developed into the main body of opposition against British colonial rule. Besides, a Muslim anti-colonial organisation was founded in 1906, called the Muslim League. While most parts of the Indian population remained loyal to the British colonial power during the First World War, more and more Muslim people joined the Indian independence movement since they were angry about the division of the Ottoman Empire by the British. The non-violent resistance against British colonial rule, mainly initiated and organised by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, finally lead to independence in 1947.

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At the same time, the huge British colony was split into two nations: The secular Indian Union and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. The Muslim League had demanded for an independent Muslim state with a majority of Muslims. India became a member of the British Commonwealth after 1947. Post-colonial development in India The Partition of India (also called the Great Divide) led to huge movements and an ethnic conflict across the Indian-Pakistani border. While around 10 million Hindus and Sikhs were expelled from Pakistan, about 7 million Muslims crossed the border to from India to Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of people died in this conflict. Ever since these incidents, there have been tensions between India and Pakistan which lead to different wars particularly in the Kashmir region. For decades the Congress Party ruled the democratic country which had become a republic with its own constitution in 1950. In 1977 the opposition gained the majority of votes. In 1984, after the Congress Party had regained the majority, conflicts with the cultural minority of the Sikhs lead to the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi. Today, apart from the significant economic progress, India is still facing its old problems: Poverty, overpopulation, environmental pollution as well as ethnic and religious conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. Additionally, the Kashmir conflict has not come to an end yet, while both Pakistan and Indian are threatening each other with their arsenals of atomic weapons. Concerning post-colonial literature, Edward Saids book Orientalism (published in 1978) is regarded as the beginning of post-colonial studies. In this book the author analyses how European states initiated colonialism as a result of what they called their own racial superiority. The religious-ethnic conflicts between different groups of people play an important role in the early years of post-colonialism. Eye-witnesses from both

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sides of the Indian-Pakistani conflict wrote about their feelings and experience during genocide, being confronted to blind and irrational violence and hatred. The Partition is often described as an Indian trauma. One example for a post-colonial scriptwriter who wrote about this conflict is Saddat Hasan Manto (1912 1955). He was forced to leave Bombay and to settle in Lahore, Pakistan. He published a collection of stories and sketches (Mottled Dawn) that deal with this dark era of Indian history and its immense social consequences and uncountable tragedies. Furthermore, there are many different approaches to the topic of intercultural exchange between the British and the Indian population. Uncountable essays and novels deal with the ambiguous relationship between these two nations. One particularly interesting phenomenon is that authors from both sides try to write from different angles and perspectives and in that way to show empathy with their cultural counterpart. The most famous novelist who wrote about these social and cultural exchanges is Salman Rushdie. Rushdie, who won the booker prize among various others, was born in India, but studied in England and started writing books about India and the British in the early eighties. His funny, brave, metaphoric and sometimes even ironical way of writing offers a multi-perspective approach to the postcolonial complex. This can be also seen in his book Midnights Children. In the past, Salman Rushdie was also repeatedly threatened by Irani fundamentalists because of his critical writing about Muslim extremism in the Middle East. Another famous post-colonial novel is Heat and Dust (published in 1975) by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala that contains two plot set in different times: One about a British lady starting an affair with a local Indian prince in the 1920s, the other one set in the 1970s, featuring young Europeans on a hippie trail who claim they have left behind Western civilisation and are trying to some spiritual home among Indian gurus.

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Bollywood has become a notorious synonym for the uprising Indian film industry in recent years. Young Indian scriptwriters have discovered postcolonial issues as themes for their movies and as a way of dealing with the changeful past of their country. Concerning the integration of Western values in the Indian population and culture, one can say that the British influence is still omnipresent in the Asian subcontinent. The reason for this can be also found in the persistence of the English language. Many Indians are conversant with the English language, because the British colonialists intended to export their values and culture by teaching the Indian population their language. This was regarded as the basic fundament for further education. What about the relationship between India and the United Kingdom today? It is a special one, and of course still not without tensions between these two nations that refer to the time of colonialism which from our retro perspective is not at all so far away. India has managed to become an independent state with its own political system and is still working to find its own identity. The longer the process of decolonisation lasts, the more we get the impression that only a middle course between the acceptance of British legacies and the creation of a new unique Indian self-confidence will be the right way to go for India.

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