In 1969 Aimé Césaire published his spinoff William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Césaire’s version, The Tempest, expands and changes the characters to highlight some of their characters and directly deal with the colonial issues raised by Shakespeare’s original work. In particular, Césaire points out the various aspects of colonial minds that are common, and provides insight […]
Tag Archives: Caliban
Gender issues are present in many of Shakespeare’s plays. Racial difference is a “central” issue in several of his works, most notably Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest. (Bennett 209). Some modern critics see him as representative of the larger concerns British Colonialism present in the nascent British Empire connecting it to the […]
06
Oct
Oct
Last April, while I was in France, Martinique-born French poet/politician Aimé Césaire died and had a public funeral. I was a bit surprised at the state funeral by President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom Césaire had refused to meet when he was alive. I was more surprised that Césaire was not already dead, as the other founder […]
03
May
May
To many readers, Shakepeare’s plays seem to be written in a foreign language. Sometimes the words are familiar but don’t seem to carry the same meaning as they do today. But Shakespeare’s English is really not that different from modern American English. Learning a few word meanings can make reading the plays much easier and […]
Over the years, Shakespeare has been transformed and adapted in many different ways and has come to be seen as the epitome of high art and culture. Yet many people find themselves so utterly bored or bewildered by the strange words used in traditional Shakespearean plays, leaving a few disappointed theatergoers, “The clouds methought would […]
For centuries, the intricate characters in William Shakespeare’s plays have enchanted audiences all over the world. Each of these plays is filled with rich characters that people can truly relate to, and often, the character who “steals the show” is not necessarily the lead character. The names of these powerful supporting characters have become household […]
27
Jan
Jan
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest incorporates an array of different characters, conflicts, themes, and other literary tools in its development as a play. The play’s island setting, however, is vital to the framework of the play as a whole, creating the foundation for these literary elements. The island, with its many features, can be viewed as […]