Tempestuous Relations: Adaptation as Textual Movement in Césaire’s Une Tempête

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the conceptual framing of adaptations. Rather than derivative, the paper argues that adaptations engage with their precedent texts to 1) revise them, and 2) state their specificity from them. To conceptually contextualize adaptation, the paper draws upon theoretical and textual insights. Theoretically, the presented conceptual framework synthesizes poststructuralist and deconstructionist ideas. Additionally, it reformulates theories on intertextuality within the aims and purposes of the work. Textual relations highlight how the second text moves between its own specificity and the text upon which it depends. As for textual insights, the paper has Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête as a case study. Focusing on the character of Caliban, the analysis shows how the refinements added by Une Tempête perform two functions: 1) they show the identity of the play in contrast to its precedent Shakespearean text, and 2) they uncover and discuss implied aspects of the original. Finally, the paper sits with the indefinite article in Césaire’s text. Such an interest shows how indefiniteness reconfigures the specific context of the play and, consequently, suggests that  reconfiguring context is one possibility of the proposed textual movement.