The Subversive Sub-Text of Spices in Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh

Abstract

The pursuit of wealth and power has long been a bridge that unites East and West. In his 1995 novel, The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie employs two factors or commodities, to deconstruct political and cultural history in East-West relations. On the political plane, he lays bare the East-West power axis based on the age-old spice trade, while on the cultural plane, he unveils the more recent bilateral interchange based upon the arts and media. A Rushdie hallmark is the choice of a polyvalent concept which gives much mileage, and here we see how Rushdie mixes a hot sauce out of spices and wealth, history and politics, race and identity, art and love.