The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 27.175 Wednesday, 4 May 2016
[1] From: Pervez Rizvi <
Date: May 4, 2016 at 3:24:10 AM EDT
Subject: Re: The Tempest and Colonialism
[2] From: Kristina Sutherland <
Date: May 4, 2016 at 10:46:52 AM EDT
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Colonialism
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pervez Rizvi <
Date: May 4, 2016 at 3:24:10 AM EDT
Subject: Re: The Tempest and Colonialism
Larry Weiss wrote: ‘What is as old as recorded history is conquest and subjugation, which is not the same thing as “colonialism” as it is usually understood in this “post-colonial” world.’
Francis Fukuyama famously theorized that history ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. I think Larry may be on to an equally brilliant thesis, that history began in 1616, moments after Shakespeare died. I'll even help him by writing a poetical opening to his essay. So, with apologies to the shade of Philip Larkin, here goes:
History started
In sixteen-sixteen
(As can now be seen)
Between when Shakespeare departed
And his memory was still green.
(Anyone curious should Google Larkin’s poem Annus Mirabilis.)
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From: Kristina Sutherland <
Date: May 4, 2016 at 10:46:52 AM EDT
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Colonialism
Dear scholars,
While The Tempest is hardly within my realm of studies, I thought I would send in a few thoughts I have about the subject of colonialism within.
The first is that yes, Prospero was kind to Caliban until his attempted rape of Miranda, and we may see his treatment within the play as just desserts, but Ariel has apparently faithfully served Prospero and the following exchange takes place in Act 1 Scene 2:
Ariel: Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet perform'd me.
Prospero: How now? moody?
What is't thou canst demand?
Ariel: My liberty.
Ariel is not just a servant for Prospero. He owes him his life and this seems to have made him Prospero’s slave, even though the arrangement is temporary. This promise of liberty is referred to a few more times within the text, as Prospero or Ariel continue to discuss the exchange of labor for freedom, either by themselves or with each other. The idea seems clear to me that it is not enough for the full year promised to pass - Ariel wants freedom earlier, and Prospero wants all of his tasks done before freeing his servant. Freeing Ariel is literally the last thing that Prospero does before the epilogue.
There is also the later exchange in 3.2 when Caliban tells Stephano “I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.”
Shakespeare also didn’t have to go far back into history to look at the relationships between Europeans and people in foreign, “discovered” lands. Montaigne’s essay, Des cannibales, and Jean de Léry’s Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil were rather recent.
Sincerely,
Kristina Sutherland