Postcolonial Theory and the Study of Christian History

摘要

InN the early years of the seventeenth century, as Europe pursued its conquestnof new parts of the world, William Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, one ofnhis final plays. The Tempest is the story of a group of European travelersnwho are shipwrecked on what we are told is “an uninhabited island.” But thenisland is actually not uninhabited—Shakespeare’s dramatis personae for thenplay includes a listing for “Caliban, a savage and deformed slave.” Calibannis indeed portrayed as savage, practically half animal—his name itself is annanagram for “cannibal.”n1