William Shakespeare

The Tempest William Shakespeare

Newly revised edition ...

The voice of slave Caliban rings most clearly to my twenty-first century Iroquoian ears, singing drunkenly, hopefully, of freedom.--Daniel David Moses

Shakespeare Made in Canada is a series of editions of Shakespeare's plays with a national focus. A testament to the University of Guelph's commitment to the dissemination of research on the arts in Canada, and in particular to the Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project run since 2004 by Guelph professor Daniel Fischlin, the series aims to celebrate "Canadians doing Shakespeare for over 150 years" ... and to provide teaching texts for Canadian undergraduate students. Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest, the first editions in the series, advance these commemorative and pedagogical aims imaginatively.... [E]ach includes a preface by a Canadian playwright involved with an adaptation of the play as well as an introduction by a leading Canadian scholar. In addition to a play-text complete with original new annotation for students, each edition contains a plethora of pedagogical aids that are sure to make this series popular among undergraduates in particular.-Joel Benabu, Shakespeare Bulletin

The electric connect between the First Nations and the Bard is front and centre in Fischlin's Canadian edition of Shakespeare's last play, and rightly so, for The Tempest is widely seen as Shakespeare's commentary on European colonial expansion.... Fischlin's introductory essay plunges into significant Canadian debates provoked by this play...."-Susan Knutson, Literary Review of Canada

Europeans collide with an unknown new world in this curious play, filled with magic, corruption, intrigue, lust, and full-on comedy. Written and staged around 1610, The Tempest reflects a contemporary fascination with those mysterious and foreign parts of the world newly available to European exploration and exploitation. How would old and new worlds interact? Few come off surrounded by virtue in Shakespeare's drama. Daniel Fischlin-the ingenious creator of the Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project-has written an excellent introduction that provides dark and delightful new ways to understand this play, including insights from Northrop Frye, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, and Normand Chaurette.