Synopses & Reviews
Tempests After Shakespeare shows how the “rewriting” of Shakespeares play serves as an interpretive grid through which to read three movements—postcoloniality, postpatriarchy, and postmodernism—via the Tempest characters of Caliban, Miranda/Sycorax and Prospero, as they vie for the ownership of meaning at the end of the twentieth century. Covering texts in three languages, from four continents and in the last four decades, this study imaginatively explores the collapse of empire and the emergence of independent nation-states; the advent of feminism and other sexual liberation movements that challenged patriarchy; and the varied critiques of representation that make up the “postmodern condition.”
Review
"A major work of scholarship that will need to be consulted by those in comparative literature and postcolonial studies as well as those in traditional areas of English literature and drama. It is impressively thorough, up to date, yet disciplined, and filled with insight." --Bruce King
Synopsis
Tempests after Shakespeare shows how the "rewriting" of Shakespeare's play serves as an interpretive grid through which to read three movements--postcoloniality, postpatriarchy, and postmodernism--via the Tempest characters of Caliban, Miranda/Sycorax and Prospero, as they vie for the ownership of meaning at the end of the twentieth century. Covering texts in three languages, from four continents, and over the last four decades, this study imaginatively explores the collapse of empire and the emergence of independent nation-states; the advent of feminism and other sexual liberation movements that challenged patriarchy; and the varied critiques of representation that make up the "postmodern condition."
Synopsis
Tempests after Shakespeare shows how the “rewriting” of Shakespeares play serves as an interpretive grid through which to read three movementspostcoloniality, postpatriarchy, and postmodernismvia the
Tempest characters of Caliban, Miranda/Sycorax and Prospero, as they vie for the ownership of meaning at the end of the twentieth century. Covering texts in three languages, from four continents, and over the last four decades, this study imaginatively explores the collapse of empire and the emergence of independent nation-states; the advent of feminism and other sexual liberation movements that challenged patriarchy; and the varied critiques of representation that make up the “postmodern condition.”
About the Author
Chantal Zabus is Professor of Postcolonial and Womens Studies at the University of Paris XIII. She the is author of
The African Palimpsest, and has edited
Le Secret: Motif et Moteur de la Litterature and
Changements au féminin en Afrique noire.
Table of Contents
Introduction *
One: Calibanic Post-Coloniality * The Deprivileging of Prospero * The Rise of Caliban * Caliban on the Edge *
Two: Miranda and Sycorax on the “Eve” of Postpatriarchy * The Canadian Miranda and the Law of the Father * Caribbean Increments to Miranda’s Story * Chapter VI Including America: The Indian Maiden and the Bedizened Crone *
Three: The Return of Postmodern Prospero * The Pleasures of Intergalactic Exile * The Other Niece of Utopia: Fantasy * Sinister Variants on Enclosure * Flaunting The Tempest: From “Insubstantial Pageant” To Celluloid Fresco * Conclusion: The Selfish Meme Introduction *
Part One: Calibanic Post-Coloniality * The Deprivileging of Prospero * The Rise of Caliban * Caliban on the Edge *
Part Two: Miranda and Sycorax on the “Eve” of Postpatriarchy * The Canadian Miranda and the Law of the Father * Caribbean Increments to Miranda’s Story * Chapter VI Including America: The Indian Maiden and the Bedizened Crone *
Part Three: The Return of Postmodern Prospero * The Pleasures of Intergalactic Exile * The Other Niece of Utopia: Fantasy * Sinister Variants on Enclosure * Flaunting The Tempest From “Insubstantial Pageant” To Celluloid Fresco * Conclusion: The Selfish Meme