Adaptation and Appropriation in Aimé Césaire's a Tempest

Abstract

Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest is one of the earliest adaptations of a Western canonical work. It is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Césaire’s play conveys his anti-colonist ideas, exploring the relationship between Prospero, the colonizer, and his colonial subjects, Caliban and Ariel, from the perspective of the colonized. Comparing the characterization and the colonizer/colonized relationship in the two plays, this paper attempts to illustrate how Césaire uses Shakespeare's text to address the ills of colonialism and turn the tables on the colonizer using one of the masterpieces of the western canon. It also attempts to show how Césaire uses the mechanics of adaptation and appropriation to achieve his goals.