The Tempest: Caliban’s Legacy of Race, Class, and Colonialism

Sep 10, 2025

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This episode explores Caliban’s role in The Tempest and the ways his character has been shaped by and interpreted through race, class, and colonialism. We begin with a close look at “the pinch” and unpack how Shakespeare’s audience would have understood its connections to resource scarcity and punishment.

We then chart Caliban’s performance history from the 19th century to the early 1980s, revealing how shifting portrayals reflected cultural attitudes. We end with a discussion of how the play’s deep entanglement with colonial discourse has led to it being banned in some U.S. classrooms.

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

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Works referenced:

Akhimie, Patricia. “Pinching caliban: Race, husbandry, and the working body in the Tempest.” Shakespeare/Sense, 2020, pp. 269–290, https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474273268.ch-012.

Griffiths, Trevor R. “‘This Island’s Mine’: Caliban and Colonialism.” The Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 13, 1983, pp. 159–80. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3508119. Accessed 1 Sept. 2025.

Espinosa, R. (2017). Beyond The Tempest: Language, Legitimacy, and La Frontera . In: Fazel, V., Geddes, L. (eds) The Shakespeare User. Reproducing Shakespeare. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61015-3_3

Favate, Sam. “Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ Barred from Arizona Public Schools.” The Wall Street Journal, January 17, 2012. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-LB-41723.