When Caliban writes back
Alameddine's appropriation of Shakespeare's The Tempest
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2179398 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yousef Awad (0000-0002-7585-2887) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 803-816 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17449855.2020.1816564 |
| OpenAlex | W3108840301 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 15 |
Arab American Rabih Alameddine's novel The Angel of History appropriates Shakespeare's The Tempest to comment on its representation of Caliban and his mother, Sycorax, and show how distorted images of Arabs and Muslims have been disseminated in US popular culture in the post-9/11 era. Alameddine's novel, like Shakespeare's romance, is populated by spirits, demons, and angels, and his protagonist, Jacob, is referred to at one point as "Caliban" due to his dark skin colour. He shares Caliban's "bastard" origins and his status as the "devil's son". Both Caliban and Jacob learn a new language to relate their versions of history: Alameddine's protagonist uses English to narrate his mother's story – one suppressed in The Tempest. Through its innovative narration and use of the language of the colonizer, the novel subverts dominant stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, exposing both contemporary US consumerist attitudes and 17th-century European prejudice towards "the other
Appropriation · Art · Heaven · Literature · Narrative · Politics · Prejudice (legal term · Representation (politics · Romance · Tempest · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · History · Law · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |