Literature●●●●●Difficulty 4 of 5

Is The Tempest a play about colonialism, or did critics read it in later?

Caliban's line 'This island's mine' became a rallying cry in the 1960s, about 350 years after the play was written.

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Partly yes, and the interesting part is which part. The Tempest was written around 1610-1611 and its story is about a ruler who occupies an island, forces the island's only inhabitant to protect him and binds a spirit into servitude. The play has also been seen as an allegory of Europeans colonising foreign lands. But traditionally readers saw it differently.

A colonial reading has plenty to work with. Prospero, a magician, lives on a remote island with his daughter and two servants, Caliban and Ariel. Prospero used magic to force Caliban, the island's only inhabitant, to protect him, and he bound Ariel into servitude. The opening storm has a likely source in William Strachey's report of the 1609 wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda, a ship sailing toward Virginia. And Gonzalo's dream of an ideal society echoes Montaigne's essay on cannibals, which was translated in 1603.

The play and its readings

  1. 1603

    Florio translates Montaigne's Of the Canibales

  2. 1609

    Sea Venture wrecked on Bermuda

  3. 1610-11

    The Tempest probably written

  4. c. 1950

    Mannoni starts the postcolonial rereading

  5. 1960s-70s

    Caliban's line becomes a rallying cry

Yet traditionally the play was viewed as an allegory of artistic creativity, with Prospero as all-knowing and benevolent. Only from about 1950 did postcolonial theorists reinterpret it, and in the 1960s and 1970s Caliban's line 'This island's mine' became a rallying cry for African and Caribbean intellectuals. Critics such as Meredith Anne Skura object that this projects later history back onto a 1610s play.

Quiz me

0/3

  1. 1.When did postcolonial readings of The Tempest begin to spread?
  2. 2.Which objection do critics like Meredith Anne Skura raise?
  3. 3.What did the traditional reading of the play stress?

Recap

The play has real colonial sources, but the postcolonial reading is later and disputed.

πŸ’‘ A trick to remember it Β· Old reading: wizard and his art. New reading: wizard and his island's owner.

Surprising fact Β· Caliban's name may be an anagram of the Spanish for cannibal.

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Sources (2)

No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (15 claims) cites at least one of these.

  1. [1]The Tempest Β· Wikipedia
  2. [2]Caliban Β· Wikipedia
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