This Motherless Land

Language note: This section of the guide quotes ableist language from Jane Eyre to critique the power dynamics in the text. 

Decolonial literature, in the broadest sense, is writing which examines a nation or people after formal colonialism has ended. It explores the lasting effects and ongoing forms of colonialist control and influence, including how liberated nations seek to establish their own identity and culture. Decolonial authors often critically examine the idea of an identity that is heavily influenced by both their own culture and history and that of the colonizer, while seeking to interrogate the more insidious ways in which colonialist practices and mindsets continue in various guises.

In decolonial literature, authors sometimes take classic literature from a colonizing nation and then rewrite it in some way from a different perspective. One such example is Aimé Césaire’s play A Tempest (1969), a retelling of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611). The Tempest tells the story of Prospero, who rules over a magical island in the Caribbean, plotting his revenge to restore himself as the rightful Duke of Milan. To do so, he enslaves and uses the natives on the island, Ariel and Caliban, forcing them to do his bidding.