A Tempest

"The weapon of poetry may be Césaire's greatest gift to a modern world still searching for freedom. As one of the last truly great 'universalists' of the twentieth century, he has had a hand in shaping or critiquing many of the major ideologies and movements of the modern world--Marxism, nationalism, Pan-Africanism and fascism, among others. All of 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. Césaire must have known this, which is why more than half a century ago he wrote: 'Poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge.'" --From the Introduction

Césaire's rich and insightful adaptation of A Tempest draws on contemporary Caribbean society, the African-American experience and African mythology to raise questions about colonialism, racism and their lasting effects.