A Tempest

“The exams took their toll, for sure, though the psychic and emotional costs of having to imbibe the very culture Césaire publicly rejected must have exacerbated an already exhausting regimen.”

In the Introduction, Kelley provides the reader with details of Césaire’s background and education to illuminate the artistic decisions Césaire makes in the play. Césaire’s school exams forced him to learn about the humanities from French and other European perspectives rather than his own. The playwright recreates this impactful personal experience in the characters of Ariel and Caliban, who are similarly forced to speak Prospero’s language rather than their own.

“The instruments of colonial power rely on barbaric, brutal violence and intimidation, and the end result is the degradation of Europe itself.” 

According to Kelley, in Césaire’s seminal anticolonial work of literature, titled Discourse on Colonialism, Césaire argues that colonialism actually “‘decivilizes’ the colonizer” (xi). Colonialist acts of brutality are often justified by racist beliefs and immorality, making “the master class” less human (xi). 

“All these ideas are rooted in notions of progress, all are products of modernity, and all fall short when it comes to envisioning a genuinely emancipatory future.” 

Kelley concludes the Introduction by asserting that Césaire’s critiques of ideologies like Marxism and fascism reveal his belief in universalism. To Césaire, culture is meaningless, and “cultured” European nations engage in murder and subjugation in the name of colonialism, thus compromising the notion of culture altogether. According to Césaire, no progress can take place without humanism and an acknowledgement of the truth that all people deserve freedom.