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THE OTHER - Coggle Diagram
THE OTHER
EXAMPLE 1: power of language to liberate “thou earth”, “hag-seed”, juxtaposed to "he refuses to call them prisoners"
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Bent Pencil places all of the curse words from the play in one long list including “incharitable dog”, “thou earth”, “hag-seed”, which deny Caliban any power or humanity, reinforcing negative stereotypes surrounding the barbaric nature of native inhabitants.
COLLIDES with how Felix refers to the prisoners, by refusing to call them inmates
language’s power to liberate, empower those historically oppressed
CONTEXT: Atwood affirms Postmodern theorist Foucalt who asserts that discourse transmits and produces power but also exposes it.
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EXAMPLE 1: dehumanisation“thou earth, thou!”
consequences of imprisoning colonial narratives that imprison man are drawn attention to as Caliban is later referred to as “”, using a dehumanising epithet to demonstrate how Caliban is denied any sense of humanity
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CONTEXT: Shakespeare alludes to the Age of Discovery and the European colonial narrative of supposed European superiority, where other races are deemed “inferior, “brutish”, “savage”.
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DISSONANCE WITHIN: CALIBAN'S COMPLEX CHARACTERISATION: conversation on the complexity of the humans nature is explored through the wickedness and “brutish” nature of Caliban juxtaposed to his ability for self-reflection.
EXAMPLE 5: “and I’ll be wise hereafter, / And seek for grace,”
In the play’s denouement, Prospero pardons Caliban for his attempted coup and Caliban responds: “,” demonstrating how his acquisition of self-knowledge has enabled Caliban’s capacity for transformation.
The “savage” and “brutish” Caliban’s capacity for self-reflection and reform is juxtaposed with Antonio, the apparently “benevolent’ nobleman's silence and lack of repentance, subverting the Jacobean assumption about identity.
The audience is positioned to see that a preoccupation with superiority prevents Antonio's self-knowledge.
CONTEXT: Shakespeare demonstrates the colonial narrative is limiting and that the human nature is more complex than colonial narrative describes it to be.
EXAMPLE 4: did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts of ever-angry bears”
Caliban’s evil is evident in the tormenting nature of Ariel’s screams, “” which he ignored, using animalistic imagery to suggest Caliban is more bestial than animals, reinforcing the stereotype that native people are “brutish”, “savage”.
Through the complex characterisation of Caliban and Ariel, who represents the imprisoned, colonised, Shakespeare aligns with Montaigne and conveys how perceptions of colonial subjects can be imprisoning.
Atwood ALIGNS with Shakespeare through her representation of the ‘other’ as the inmates are likened to Caliban, reflecting her Postmodern context and exposing how cultural narratives can be limiting and demeaning .