Paper
Name: The Postcolonial Literature.
Paper
No: 11
Name:
Vaghela Sejal Pareshbhai.
NO: 27
Guided
By: Dr.Dilip Barad
Submitted
To: Department of English Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
Critical
Appreciation of the Play “A Tempest” Aime Cesaire (1969) and Tr. Richard
Miller.
Introduction:
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“The Tempest” is written by William
Shakespeare and “A Tempest” is deconstruct play deconstruct by Aime Cesaire
(1969) and Tr. Richard Miller. Aimé Césaire was born in 1913 in Martinique in
the French Caribbean. He left for Paris in 1931 at the age of 18with a
scholarship for school. During his time at the Lycee Louis-le Grand, he helped
found a student publication,
Etudiant Noir.
In 1936, Césaire started working on his famed piece Cahier, which was not published
until 1939. He married fellow student Suzanne Roussi in 1937, and the couple
moved back to Martinique with theirson in 1939. Both Aime and Suzanne got jobs
at the LyceeSchoelcher. In 1945, Césaire began his politicalcareer when he was
elected mayor of Fort-de-France and deputy in the Constituent Assembly on the
FrenchCommunist Party ticket. During the 1940s, Césaire was busy writing and
publishing many collections of his work. He seemed to be influenced by art
because he wrote a tribute to a painter named WilfredoLam and one of his
collections has illustrations by Pablo Picasso. In 1956, Aime Césaire resigned
from the French CommunistParty and two years later he began the “Parti
Progressiste Martiniquais.” During these years, Césaire attended Césaire, Aimé
Postcolonial Studies at Emory. He is attend two conferences for Negro Writers
and Artists in Paris. In 1968 he published the first version of Une Tempete,an adaptation of
Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
He continued writing poetry and plays and retired frompolitics in 1993. He
passed away in April of 2008 and was given a state funeral. All of Césaire’s
writings are inFrench with a limited number having English translations. (Césaire)
The Tempest is set on a remote
island, where prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his
daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skilful manipulation.
He conjures up a strom, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother
Antonio and the complicit king Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his
machinations bring about the revelation of antonio’s lowly nature, the
redemption of the king and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso’s son, Ferdinand.
The Story draws heavily on the tradition of the romance and it was influenced
by tragicomedy and the Commedia dell’arte. It differs from shakespeare’s other
plays in its observation of a stricter, more organized neoclassical style.
Critics see The Tempest as explicitly concerned with its own nature as a play,
frequently drawing links between Prospero’s “art” and theatrical illusion and
early critics saw Prospero as a representation of Shakespeare and his
renunciation of magic as signaling Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage. The
play portrays Prospero as a rational and not an Occultist, magician by
providing a contrast to him in Sycorax; her magic is frequently described as
destructive and terrible, where Prospero’s is said to be wondrous and
beautiful. Beginning in about 1950, with the publication of psychology of
colonization by Octave Mannoni, The Tempest was viewed more and more through
the lens of postcolonial theory exemplified in adaptations like Aime Cesaire’s
Une Tempest set in Haiti and there is even a scholarly journal on post Colonial
criticism named after Caliban.
The Tempest did not attract a
significant amount of attention before the closing of the theatres in 1642 and
only attained popularity after the Restoration and then only in adapted
versions. In the mid 19th century, theatre productions began to
reinstate the original Shakespearean text and in the 20th century,
critics and scholars undertook a significant re appraisal of the play’s value
to the extent that it is now considered to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest
works.
The Tempest Play opens with as
Prospero having divined that his brother, Antonio is on a ship passing close by
the island has raised a tempest which causes the ship are Antonio’s friend and
fellow Conspirator, King Alonso of Naples, Alonso’s brother and son, and
Alonso’s advisor, Gonzalo all these passengers are returning from the wedding
of Alonso’s daughter Claribel with the king of Tunis. Prospero contrives to
separate the shipwreck survivors into seceral groups by his spells and so
Alonso and Ferdinand are separated each believing the other to be dead. In one
Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunkards, who he believes
have come from the moon. They attempt to raise a rebellion against Prospero,
which ultimately fails. In another, Prospero works to establish a romantic
relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda the two falls immediately in love
but Prospero Worries that “too light winning make the prize light,” and comples
Ferdinand to become his servant pretending that he regards him as a spy. In the
third subplot Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that
Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that Sebastian can become
king. Ariel appears to the three men of si” "as a harpy,reprimanding them
for their betrayal of Prospero. Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies’
path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him. (Shakespeare)
·
The
Tempest starts with these dialogues:
“Master
Boatswain
Master
In
these plays Prospero has forbidden. This prompts Caliban to attempt to
claim birthrights to the island, angering Prospero who threatens to whip
Caliban. During their argument, Caliban tells Prospero that he no longer
wants to be called Caliban, “Call me X. That would be best. Like a A
Tempest by Aime Cesaire was originally published in 1969 in French by
Editions du Seuil in Paris. Cesaire, a recognized poet, essayist,
playwright, and politician, was born in Martinique in 1913 and, until his death
in 2008, had been instrumental in voicing post-colonial concerns. In the
1930s, he, along with Leopold Senghor and Leon Gontian Damas, developed thenegritude movement
which endeavored to question French colonial rule and restore the cultural
identity of blacks in the African diaspora. A Tempest is the
third play in a trilogy aimed at advancing the tenets of the negritude
movement. In 1985, the play was translated into English by Richard Miller
and had its American premiere in 1991 at the Ubu Repertory Theater in New York
after having been performed in France, the Middle East, Africa, and the West
Indies.
·
Aime
Cesaire starts these play with it:
GONZALO Though we are but straws tossed on
the sea, all is not lost, Gentlemen; we
must strive to gain the eye of the storm.
ANTONIO We might have known this old fool
would nag us to death!
SEBASTIAN To the bitter end!
9/12/2014 Aime Cesaire: A Tempest (Une
Tempete) | First Year Foundation
http://firstyear.barnard.edu/shakespeare/tempest/tempete
2/12
GONZALO Try to understand what I'm telling
you: imagine a huge cylinder like the
chimney of a lamp, travelling fast as a
galloping horse but in the center as still
and unmoving as Cyclop's eye. That is the
area we refer to when we say "the
eye of the storm," and we have to get to
it.
ANTONIO Oh, very nice! In short, you're
trying to tell us that the cyclone or Cyclops,
unable to see the beam in his own eye, will
let us escape! Oh, very
illuminating! (Caisre)
“The tempest” and “A Tempest” has many
differences. Like in Shakespeare’s The Tempest Shakespeare doesn’t give right
to Caliban that he can’t speak against the Prospero and in the A Tempest Aime Cesaire give Right to calian that he can arise his questions to
Prospero. That is also colonialism in this play. We were
discussing, naturally enough, the recent polemic regarding Cuba that ended by
confronting, on the one hand, certain bourgeois European intellectuals with a
visible colonialist nostalgia; and on the other, that body of Latin-American
writers and artists who reject open or veiled forms of cultural and political
colonialism. The question seemed to me to reveal one of the roots of the
polemic and, hence, could also be expressed another way: "Do you
exist?" For to question our culture is to question our very existence, our
human reality itself, and thus to be willing to take a stand in favor of our
irremediable colonial condition, since it suggests that we would be but a distorted
echo of what occurs elsewhere. This elsewhere is of course the metropolis, the
colonizing centers, whose "right wings" have exploited us and whose
supposed "left wings" have
pretended and continue to pretend to guide us with pious solicitude in both
cases with the assistance of local intermediaries of varying persuasions.
Ferdinand
flirts with Miranda as he works as Prospero's slave. When Prospero praises
Ferdinand's hard work, he invites him back to his house before yelling at
Caliban who sings of freedom and hides from approaching men he believes to be
Prospero's agents. In the next scene, Tinculo and Stephano find Caliban whom
they plan to sell to a carnival in Europe, but when Stephano proclaims himself
king of the Island, Caliban rallies them to battle and to overthrow Prospero.
In Act 3, Scene 3, Prospero hosts a celebration of Miranda and Ferdinand's
engagement where the goddesses bless the upcoming nuptials. When Eshu appears
uninvited, Prospero swears vengeance against Caliban. In Act 3, Scene 4, at
Prospero's command, Ariel torments Caliban during the night as he plots his
attack on Prospero. On their way to battle, Trinculo and Stephano grow
distracted, and Prospero commands Ariel to imprison Caliban, Trinculo and
Stephano. In the final scene, Alonso is reunited with his son and rejoices in
the engagement between Miranda and Ferdinand. Prospero forgives his offenders
and releases Ariel from slavery. Since Caliban refuses to repent for his
disobedience, Prospero decides to stay on the Island. The nobles return to
Naples with Miranda to celebrate the nuptials of Ferdinand and Miranda, and
Prospero stays on the Island where he continues his contest of wills with
Caliban who sings about freed om. (Shakespeare)
·
With All these examples Shakespeare presents the Prospero
and Ariel’s relation:
ARIEL
PROSPERO
If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.
ARIEL
PROSPERO
ARIEL
PROSPERO
Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be
subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence!
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence!
Exit
ARIEL (Shakespeare, "The Tempest")
.
·
These one
is he example of relation between Caliban and Ariel I “A Tempest”.
ARIEL:
You know very well that that's not what I mean' No
violence,
no submission either. Listen to me: Prospero is the
one
we've got to change. Destroy his serenity so that he's
frnally
forcãd to acknowledge his own injustice and Put an
end
to it.
¡
.
CALIBAN:
Oh sure...that's a good one! Prosp..o'rì ,
conscience!
Prospero is an old scoundrel who has no
conscience.
ARIEL:
Exactþ - ¡þ21'5 why it's up to us to give fri- o."'j '
I'm
not fighting just for nzy freedom , fot our freedom, buti r
for
Prospero too, so that Prospero can acquire a conscience.ì .:
Help
me, Caliban. :,
::
CALIBAN:
Listen, kid, sometimes I wonder if you aren't a¡ ,
little
bit nuts. So that Prospero can acquire a conscience?
You
might as well ask a stone to grow flowers. ,. j
:t
ARIEL:
I don't know what to do with you' I've often hadl
'
this inspiring, uplifting dream that one day Prospero' you'
A Tempest is a postcolonial revision of William
Shakespeare’s The Tempest and
draws heavily on the original play—the cast of characters is, for the most
part, the same, and the foundation of the plot follows the same basic
premise. Prospero has been exiled and lives on a secluded island, and he
drums up a violent storm to drive his daughter’s ship ashore. The island,
however, is somewhere in the Caribbean, Ariel is a mulatto slave rather than a
sprite, and Caliban is a black slave. A Tempest focuses on the plight of Ariel and Caliban—the
never-ending quest to gain freedom from Prospero and his rule over the
island. Ariel, dutiful to Prospero, follows all orders given to him and
sincerely believes that Prospero will honor his promise of
emancipation. Caliban, on the other hand, slights Prospero at every
opportunity: upon entering the first act, Caliban greets Prospero by saying
“Uhuru!” the Swahili word for “freedom.” Prospero complains that Caliban
often speaks in his native language man without a name. Or, to be more
precise, a man whose name has been stolen” The allusion to Malcolm X
cements the aura of cultural reclamation that serves as the foundational
element of A Tempest. Cesaire
has also included the character Eshu who in the play is cast as a black
devil-god. Calling on the Yoruba mythological traditions of West Africa, Eshu
assumes the archetypal role of the trickster and thwarts Prospero’s power and
authority during assemblies. Near the end of the play, Prospero sends all
the lieutenants off the island to procure a place in Naples for his daughter
Miranda and her husband Ferdinand. When the fleet begs him to leave,
Prospero refuses and claims that the island cannot stand without him; in the
end, only he and Caliban remain. As Prospero continues to assert his hold on
the island, Caliban’s freedom song can be heard in the background. Thus,
Cesaire leaves his audience to consider the lasting effects of colonialism.
Work Cited
Caisre, Aime. ""A Tempest"."
Caisre, Aime. "A Tempest". n.d.
Césaire, Aimé. 1968.
1968 <http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/aime-cesaire/>.
Shakespeare. 1610-11.
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Tempest>.
—.
<http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-a-tempest/>.
Shakespeare.
Shakespeare. "The Tempest". n.d.
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