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Mother Syxorax: Recuperating A Postcolonial Shero in Shakespeare's and Cesaire's Tempests Item Info

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the colonial and patriarchal exploitation of people and land, along with the erasure of story and heritage, is depicted in the two intertextual works, The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1611) and A Tempest by Aimé Césaire (1969), through the complex character of Sycorax. I argue that by using postcolonial and ecofeminist lenses to analyze and compare the allegorical character of Sycorax in these two texts, one is able to reexamine the way in which concepts of colonial violence, erasure of history, ecological exploitation, and appropriation of indigenous culture and heritage run through both Tempests. By comparing these texts, readers can gain an understanding of British colonial tactics to exploit the indigenous, as well as how it is challenged through postcolonial ecofeminist frameworks. Aimé Césaire, a major influencer in postcolonial discourse, critiques Shakespeare’s The Tempest through revisions that boost Sycorax’s character in his play, A Tempest. In so doing, Césaire uses Sycorax to challenge Prospero, a character that represents the colonial perpetrator. In short, postcolonial ecofeminism aims to expose the operations of dualistic thinking that oppress and exploit humans and nature through binaries such as culture over nature, reason over emotion, white over non-white, man over woman, and ultimately domination over subordination. By analyzing the allegorical character, Sycorax, this article shows the way in which Césaire challenges colonial and patriarchal tactics immortalized in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

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Title:
Mother Syxorax: Recuperating A Postcolonial Shero in Shakespeare's and Cesaire's Tempests
Creator:
Weiss, Tiffany
Date Created:
2025-05
Description:
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the colonial and patriarchal exploitation of people and land, along with the erasure of story and heritage, is depicted in the two intertextual works, The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1611) and A Tempest by Aimé Césaire (1969), through the complex character of Sycorax. I argue that by using postcolonial and ecofeminist lenses to analyze and compare the allegorical character of Sycorax in these two texts, one is able to reexamine the way in which concepts of colonial violence, erasure of history, ecological exploitation, and appropriation of indigenous culture and heritage run through both Tempests. By comparing these texts, readers can gain an understanding of British colonial tactics to exploit the indigenous, as well as how it is challenged through postcolonial ecofeminist frameworks. Aimé Césaire, a major influencer in postcolonial discourse, critiques Shakespeare’s The Tempest through revisions that boost Sycorax’s character in his play, A Tempest. In so doing, Césaire uses Sycorax to challenge Prospero, a character that represents the colonial perpetrator. In short, postcolonial ecofeminism aims to expose the operations of dualistic thinking that oppress and exploit humans and nature through binaries such as culture over nature, reason over emotion, white over non-white, man over woman, and ultimately domination over subordination. By analyzing the allegorical character, Sycorax, this article shows the way in which Césaire challenges colonial and patriarchal tactics immortalized in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Subjects:
colonialism William Shakespeare The Tempest Sycorax Aimé Cesaire A Tempest nature women motherhood nature ecocriticism
Methods:
textual analysis
Location:
Martinique; London
Latitude:
14.66120736
Longitude:
-61.03505856
Language:
English
Source
Preferred Citation:
"Mother Syxorax: Recuperating A Postcolonial Shero in Shakespeare's and Cesaire's Tempests", English Honors Thesis Repository, Nevada State University
Reference Link:
https://nevada-state-english.github.io/nsu-english-thesis/items/ht014.html
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