Sighing into a League of His Own: Rushdie's Use of Camoes's Epic and Cervantes's Romance in 'The Moor's Last Sigh

This paper provides an analysis of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh use Luis Vaz de Camoes's epic poem The Lusiads and Miguel de Cervantes's satiric romance Don Quixote. After a brief discussion of epic and romance, I trace Rushdie's use and re-use of various aspects from both of these works. A close reading of The Lusiads and The Moor's Last Sigh will show that in re-using Camoes's epic, Rushdie provides India with a nationalistic work and voice that reclaims India from her imperial past, while also providing a pluralist perspective for the world to learn from. Furthermore, an analysis of Don Quixote and The Moor's Last Sigh will show that in reusing Cervantes's romance, Rushdie continues to promote the pluralist ideals, while also re-using the romance trope of loss to create a sense of urgency for pluralism and tolerance.