Los desvíos de Calibán

Abstract

During the 1960s and '70s, the pressure of politics over culturalpractices had crucial effects on literature. One of them was the rereadingof foundational texts that had, historically, provided themetaphors to interpret the past, and, consequently, the meaning of thepresent. The colonial allegory displayed by Shakespeare's TheTempest was one of these texts. In 1972, Roberto Fernández Retamarrecovered the opposite pair of Calibán and Próspero in his essayCalibán. However, contrary to Rodo's Ariel reading of the drama,Retamar made Calibán a symbol of the imminent emancipation of thecontinent. Nonetheless, in this (in) version of Shakespeare's story,Calibán also remained a slave, as he was perpetually committed todemonstrate the Truth of an essential entity, the People of LatinAmerica. This paper discusses some other ways of imaginingCaliban's emancipation. I will focus on Reinaldo Arena's re-writing ofemancipation in "El Central" and the short story "El reino deAlipio".