A Tempest as postcolonial text

Simple meaning of tempest: means a very violent storm with very high
winds and often rain, hail or snow (Encarta dictionary) Story is also
like that Prospero call tempest from his magic.

What is post colonialism: Post colonialism or postcolonial studies is an

academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyze,
explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism, to the
human consequences of controlling a country and establishing settlers for the
economic exploitation of the native people and their land. Drawing from
postmodern schools of thought, postcolonial studies analyze the politics of
knowledge (creation, control, and distribution) by analyzing the functional
relations of social and political power that sustain colonialism and
neocolonialismthe how and the why of an imperial regime's representations
(social, political, cultural) of the imperial colonizer and of the colonized people.
As a genre of contemporary history, post colonialism questions and reinvents the
modes of cultural perceptionthe ways of viewing and of being viewed. As
anthropology, post colonialism records human relations among the colonial
nations and the subaltern peoples exploited by colonial rule. As critical theory post
colonialism presents, explains, and illustrates the ideology and the praxis of
neocolonialism, with examples drawn from the humanitieshistory and political
science, philosophy and Marxist theory, sociology, anthropology, and geography
the cinema, religion, and theology feminism, linguistics and postcolonial literature
of which the anti-conquest narrative genre presents the stories of colonial
subjugation of the subaltern man and woman.

Defination of post colonialism: Post colonialism is the study of the legacy of the
era of European, and sometimes American, direct global domination, which ended roughly in the

mid-20th century, and the residual political, socio-economic, and psychological effects of that
colonial history. Post colonialism examines the manner in which emerging societies grapple with
the challenges of self-determination and how they incorporate or reject the Western norms and
conventions, such as legal or political systems, left in place after direct administration by
colonial powers ended. Ironically, much early postcolonial theory, with its emphasis on overt
rejection of imposed Western norms, was tied to Marxist theory, which also originated in
Europe. Contemporary studies focus more on the effects of postcolonial globalization and the
development of indigenous solutions to local needs. (htt5)

Introduction about the play:

A Tempest was originally written in 1969 in French by Aime Cesaire and

translated into English in 1985 by Richard Miller. It is written as a postcolonial
response to The Tempest by William Shakespeare. The story is the same: a big
storm, an angry Duke who's been usurped by his brother, all the devoted
courtesans, and, of course, the natives. This play deals mostly with the natives,
Ariel and Caliban. It is Cesaire's comment on the colonization of the "New World."
He has many of the same ideas as C.L.R. James, and Franz Fanon, and he has
inspired newer Caribbean writers like Michelle Cliff.

About the author:

Aime Cesaire was born in Martinique in

1913. He is renowned poet, playwright, and essayist. He began a movement called
Negritude Modernism involving the work of native Caribbean writers and artists.
His work has influenced other writers as well as sociologists like Frantz Fanon.
He was "one of the founders of the negritude movement in Francophone literature".

Martinican poet, playwright, and politician, one of the most influential authors
from the French-speaking Caribbean. Aime Cesaire formulated with Leopold
Senghor and Leon Gontian Damas the concept and movement of negritude, defined
as "affirmation that one is black and proud of it". Cesaires thoughts about
restoring the cultural identity of black Africans were first fully expressed in
(Return to My Native Land), a mixture of poetry and poetic prose. The work
celebrated the ancestral homelands of Africa and the Caribbean. It was completed
in 1939 but not published in full form until 1947.
Cesaire criticism of European civilization and colonial racism in Discourse on
colonialism (1955) influenced deeply Frantz Fanon's revolutionary manifesto
Black Skin, White Masks (1967), an examination of psychic, cultural and social
damages inflicted by colonialism. Cesaire parallels the relationship between the
colonizer and the colonized with the relationship between Nazis and their
victims. (htt6)
A Tempest by Aime Cesaire was originally published in 1969 in French by Editions du Seuil in
Paris. Cesaire, a recognized poet, essayist, playwright, and politician, was born in Martinique in
1913 and, until his death in 2008, had been instrumental in voicing post-colonial concerns. In the
1930s, he, along with Leopold Senghor and Leon Gontian Damas, developed the negritude

movement which endeavored to question French colonial rule and restore the cultural identity of
blacks in the African Diaspora. A Tempest is the third play in a trilogy aimed at advancing
the tenets of the negritude movement. In 1985, the play was translated into English by
Richard Miller and had its American premiere in 1991 at the Ubu Repertory Theater in
New York after having been performed in France, the Middle East, Africa, and the West
Indies.

Detailed information about the play: Aime Cesaire's A Tempest

is the classic text to demonstrate the truism that much of Caribbean drama is
concerned with "writing back" to the Empire. Much like Charlotte Bronte's Jane
Eyre was answered by Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, Aime Cesaire re-writes
another crutch of England literary canon thus undermining what it has built itself
on the entire epistemology of what it means to be British. Cesaire writes back the
Empire because he wants the British colonial system to confront what it has done
to the colonials. To take account of its atrocities. Here, Cesaire takes the wellknown Shakespearian play and re-writes it addressing the concerns a colonial
subject of the Caribbean would have, and still are concerned with.
Still, this leaves the question of why did Cesaire choose this particular play of
Shakespeare's to re-write? Well, The name 'the Tempest" already suggests a
certain volatility which can be argued to be likened to the ontological malaise a
Caribbean person constantly finds himself immersed in. To explain, this malaise is
due to the fact that the Caribbean contains multitudes; a plethora of different
peoples who all have mixed backgrounds and mixed blood from numerous different
tribal groups in Africa, from Europe, from the Indian subcontinent, from the now
decimated native groups that once populated the Caribbean, from Syria ... we can
go on and on.
The benefit of this play by Shakespeare is that it is already multicultural like the
Caribbean. We have the European side represented by Prospero, Miranda and the
other shipwrecked Europeans, the black slave represented by Caliban, and Ariel,
the mulatto slave, who all collide on the tiny island which could easily be, and
might have been meant to represent a Caribbean island.
The benefit of writing this play in the twentieth century is that it can call on
political and cultural icons who can easily make relatable the characters. For
example, in the play Caliban shares clear parallels with Malcolm X while the
"house slave" Ariel bears a striking resemblance to Martin Luther King Jr.
Caliban is the spokesman through which Cesaire can vent his postcolonial anger
on Prospero, who here as we have said, is a representative of all the colonial
empires of Europe. In the end Caliban holds Prospero accountable for all the
psychological damage he has suffered:

You lied to me so much

about the world, about myself,
that you ended up by imposing on me
an image of myself:
underdeveloped, in your words, under competentthat's how you made me see myself! ...
This may as well be the official letter all postcolonial subjects post to the former
Empires for it speaks of the mental slavery other iconic figures such as Bob
Marley, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey etc, preached about. The following classic
statement from the Tempest about language has been adopted and re-advanced
several times by postcolonial critics as the crucial quote which sums up all that
postcolonial literature seeks to do:
You taught me language, and my profit ont
Is I know how to curse
This shows the heart of all postcolonial literature which is the tormented
relationship the colonized has with his colonizer, and his determination to use the
language of the colonizer in order to expose the colonizer as the debilitating force
it was on the subjects who have to go through the long process of decolonization in
order to reverse the psychological effects of centuries of colonization. (2012)
The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in
whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the
tools to negotiate this new world. Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(awordchild.com, 2014)

A Tempest as a post colonial text:

(Character of Caliban and Prospero are very important to the study of colonial postcolonial
theory)

A Tempest is the third play in a trilogy aimed at advancing the tenets of the negritude movement.
It is written as a postcolonial response to The Tempest by Shakespeare. The story is the same; a
big storm, an angry Duke who has been usurped by his brother, all the devoted courtesans, and
the natives. This play deals mostly with the natives; Ariel and Caliban. It is Cesaires common
on the colonization of the new world. He has many of the same ideas are C.L.R. James and
Frantz Fanon, and he has inspired newer Caribbean writers like Michelle Cliff. It is postcolonial
revision of The Tempest and it draws heavily on the original play. The cast of character is for the
most part the same and the foundation of the plot follows the same basic premise.
Cesaire takes the well-known Shakespearian play and re-writes it addressing the
concerns a colonial subject of the Caribbean had back then, and whose post-Independent is still
concerned with today. Caliban is the spokesman through which Cesaire can vent his anticolonial
anger on Prospero, who here as we have said, is a representative of all the colonial empires of
Europe. In the end Caliban holds Prospero accountable for all the psychological damage he has
suffered:
You lied to me so much
about the world, about myself,
that you ended up by imposing on me
an image of myself:
underdeveloped, in your words, under competentthats how you made me see myself!
This may as well be the official letter all postcolonial subjects post to the former Empires for it
speaks of the mental slavery. (Wordpress.com)
Prospero has been exiled and lives on a secluded island and he drums up a violent storm to
drive his daughters ship ashore this island however is somewhere in the Caribbean;

A Tempest focuses on the plight of Ariel and Caliban the never ending ques to gain freedom
from Prospero and his rule over the island.
Ariel dutiful to Prospero follows all orders given to him and sincerely believes that Prospero will
honor his promise of emancipation. Caliban on the other hand slights Prospero at every
opportunity. In the first act: Caliban greets Prospero by saying Uhuru Swahili word for
Freedom. Prospero complains that Caliban often speaks in his native language which Prospero
has forbidden.
Caliban generally viewed as an almost archetypal representation of the third
world colonized subject originated in Shakespeares The Tempest.
What is the meaning of Third World? Third World the countries of Africa, Asia
and South America are some tomes referred to all together as third world, especially those parts
that are poor do not have much power and are not considered to be highly development compare
First World. (Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary of English)
Both are opposite to each other and Prospero is the main subject for them.

Despite the characters minor role in the play Caliban has gained critics interest due to his
subsequent re-contextualization within postcolonial contexts. Initially the figure of Caliban was

read as the symbol of primitive humanity a degenerates character exhibiting greed, lawlessness
and lust.
In his development up to mid-20th century Caliban symbolized the third world as
imagined by Europe to justify colonialism. Conversely in third world countries this character has
developed into a positive symbol of the third world view that high lights the implacable spirit of
Caliban against Prosperos subjugation. The reiterations of Caliban as a symbol of the third
world can be found not only in a dramatic work such as in Amie Cesaires A Tempest but also in
psychological and political treatises such as those written by Octavia Mannoni and Fernando
Retamar. It is interesting to situate the process of Calibans subrogation within the realm of
postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory has raised some problematic definitions and articulations
due to ambiguities of term itself.
Taken literary the term may mean theory after colonialism culturally and economically various
forms of neocolonialism. Secondly if postcolonial theory is understood as theory written after
colonialism, it contradicts the fact that many postcolonial works were written during the colonial
period.
Bill Ashcroft defines postcolonial theory as; that dynamic of opposition the discourse of
resistance to colonialism which begins from the first moment of colonization. I must definitely
do not mean after colonialism because that would be to suppose an end to imperial process.
Ashcrofts defination of postcolonial theory anticipates the above
reductive meaning and generally accepted since it denotes that colonialism is still at work and
that postcolonial theory has been written in resistance to colonialism. One key postcolonial issue
concerns the matter of identity indicate that ; like the figure of Caliban the formulation of
identity in postcolonial theory cannot escape from the process of surrogating. During their
argument (between Caliban and Prospero) Caliban tells Prospero that he no longer want to be
called Caliban;
Caliban: put it this way Im telling you that from now on I wont answer to the name Caliban.
Prospero: what put that notion into your head?
Caliban: well, Caliban isnt my name its as simple as that
Prospero: Its mine I suppose!
Caliban: Its the name give me by hatred and every time its spoken its an insult
Prospero: My hoe sensitive were getting to be! All right suggest something else, Ive got to call
you something what will it be? Cannibal would suit you, but Im sure you would not like that
would you? Lets see what about Hannibal? That fits and why not ...they all seem to like
historical names.
Caliban: Call me X. that would be best like a man without a name or to be more precise a man
whose name has been stolen, you talk about history? Well thats history and everyone knows it!
Every time you call me it reminds me of a basic fact, the fact that youve stolen everything from
me, even my identity! Uhuru!
These conversations between Caliban and Prospero are very important for postcolonial aspect.
The allusion to Malcolm X cements the aura of cultural reclamation that serves as the

foundational element of A Tempest. It also shows postcolonial issue of identity, Calibans

character which also shows relationship master- slave.
Cesaire very beautifully describe colonial postcolonial situation through the text,
especially conversation between Caliban and Prospero through them Cesaire gave us point of
view about colonial postcolonial situation. Here this dialogue shows us that type of situation
which accrues in that time;
Caliban: And thats why you will stay just like those guys who founded the colonies and why
now cant live anywhere else, youre just an old colonial addict thats what you are!
Near the end of the play Prospero sends all the lieutenants off the island to procure a place in
Naples his daughter Miranda and her husband Ferdinand. When the fleet begs him to Prospero
refuses and claims that the island cannot stand without him; in the end only he and Caliban
remains on the island. As Prospero continues to assert his hold on the island and Calibans
freedom song can be heard in the background. Thus Cesaire leaves his audience to consider the
lasting effect of colonialism.
Caliban is the spokesman through which Cesaire can vent his postcolonial
anger on Prospero who here as we have said is a representative of all the colonial empires of
Europe. In the end Caliban holds Prospero accountable for all the psychological damage he has
suffered, this may be situation presents all postcolonial literature or subjects post to the former
empire for it speaks of the mental slavery. There have been many different interpretations of the
character in the history of the production of the play; with a range that Calibans character half
human and half bestial figure third world inhabitant. Despite Calibans minor role in the play the
character has gained critics interest due to his subsequent recontextualization within
postcolonial contexts.

Conclusion: We would critically analyze Caliban as a character not as a class of slaves, we

therefore argue that who feel marginalized the play from Feminist critics the character of
Miranda and from the perspective of postcolonial critics the character of Caliban. But the
loophole is that just to quote Miranda and her speeches or a faulty perception of Calibans
character in order to acclimatize with the feminist or postcolonial theory kills the beauty of
totality of the play.
The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of
people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world rather it is that the majority have
not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.