SHAKESPEARE's The Tempest and the Allegories of Colonialism

This episode will be using Shakespeare’s The Tempest to explore a variety of questions to do with colonialism, resistance, and the relationship between Nature, artifice, and ideology as demonstrated in the play. A central focus will be on the ways in which the play allows us to think productively about the forms of colonial space-making that inextricably connected the idea of governance those of beauty and proportion, thus also suggesting a hierarchy between the beautiful and the ugly as subjects of colonialism. Caliban’s famous rebelliousness will be contrasted to Ariel’s pliant obsequiousness to show how each of them is produced through forms of colonial ideology that is masked in the language of Nature. Some suggested readings are also listed below.

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Suggested Reading:

- Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, 1984.

- Stephen Greenblatt, “Learning to Curse: Aspects of Linguistic Colonialism in the Sixteenth Century,” in Learning to Curse: Essays in Modern English Culture, 1990

- Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World, 1991.
- Kim F. Hall, Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England, 1995.

-Jeffrey Knapp, An Empire Nowhere: England, America, and Literature from ‘Utopia’ to ‘The Tempest’, 1992.

[ishitachatterjee]

An immensely enriching lecture. Helped me a great deal in writing a paper on The Tempest. Thank you, Professor Quayson!

[PorasSain]

Your explanation is very simple. It really helped me in my preparation.
I can say that "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
Thanks you sir
love from INDIA:)

[faemabel]

Thank you so much for this video! I am from Australia and am writing a paper for my Literature and decolonisation class, I found this super helpful.

[opheliawillowjuden]

Absolutely brilliant video- really helped me with my college dissertation, which is on Caliban and the role of language in colonialism. Thanks so much Professor :)

[matthewkramer]

I enjoyed the lecture, but somewhat grating is the assertion near the outset that "The Tempest" was the last of Shakespeare's plays. It may have been the last of Shakespeare's sole-authored plays, but Shakespeare wrote at least a substantial portion (perhaps the whole, but at least a substantial portion) of "Henry VIII" after "The Tempest." Shakespeare probably also wrote a substantial portion of "The Two Noble Kinsmen" as the final drama in which he had a hand. "The Tempest" does tend to come across as Shakespeare's farewell to playwriting, but he was not quite finished with that activity when he wrote it.

[ralphellectual]

"‘By contraries execute all things’: Figures of the savage in European philosophy": Alberto Toscano has an interesting take on THE TEMPEST. Gonzalo, one of the characters, posits a Rouseauesque utopia sans all the institutions of class society: "a European’s utopia, of the island as tabula rasa where one may elide or invert civilisation and its discontents; it is not a description of the ‘natives ...",

[JulioFromBoston]

A thoroughly engaging and insightful lecture. Thank you and hello from Hamilton College!

[alxcxasimon]

Thank you, I am researching the play to prepare for an audition. Everything you shared was super helpful. Are you able to share access to the essays you mentioned? or even a pdf copy of the play?

[RashmiNamanVlogs]

Thank you Professor, for such an insightful video on post colonial aspect :)

[asthasingh]

I am planning to write a research paper on Caliban and need guidance to write my paper.

[ralphellectual]

I've seen Caliban used as a metaphor countless times, esp. with respect to colonialism. And it's evident that Prospero usurped whatever was on the island before he took possession. That much is not difficult to understand. I've seen the play only once, and I was confused about what was happening. All I remember is the beautiful black women who played all the female parts. Your final comments about Ariel are intriguing (nature viz. artifice) & key I think, but I still find it difficult to unravel the ideological structure of the play and how in the end Shakespeare understood his own creation and what he unconsciously might have proved.

[nicholasjohnfranklin]

There is one reference to Bermuda ("the still vex'd Bermoothes"), which may be a reference to an area frequented by prostitutes in London - not "references" (in pliral). In any case, it is clearly elsewhere with the implication that is a far-away place. The island is clearly in the central Mediterranean, not the Caribbean since we know that the Neapolitans are returning from Tunis (where Claribel has just been married). That the island could be reached from Algeria, Tunis, Naples and Milan places it somewhere near to Sicily, not in North Africa and certainly not in the Caribbean. Repeating again and again the Post-colonial mantra about this play doesn't make it true.