Colonization and Civilization in Aimé Cesaire’s A Tempest

Abstract

This study deals with the concepts of Colonialism and Civilization in Aimé Cesaire’s A Tempest. The concern of this study is to discuss how postcolonial writers are continually re-writing the Western canonical works as a reaction to the European cultural hegemony. The Western representations of the black are products of specific moments and developments in history and culture. A Tempest reflects a certain historical moment in the decolonization process.

A Tempest is analysed to reveal the counter literary strategy used by Aimé Cesaire, and to disclose the reasons why re-writing and writing back are considered as vital and inescapable tasks. Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which deals with the theme of colonialism as a mode of “discovering,” “rescuing,” and “civilizing” the colonized, has furthered the work of colonization by stereotyping and the colonized. A Tempest is an inversion to understand the action from Caliban’s point of view. In this play, Caliban is transformed from the image of the other created by the colonizer into a paradigm for a revolutionary new world identity.