Freedom from Debt: The Economies of The Tempest

Abstract

The Tempest is poised at the threshold of two modernities: at once a nursery for politics of recognition embracing universal human rights and dignity, and an issue of poisoned political sources such as the genocidal conquest of the Americas and the European slave trade. The strange economies in the play and those in which the play has flourished help us make sense of this opposition. The economies of The Tempest become more political than the original sense of ‘economy’ as a modest activity of the private household. But they are more creative, more variegated, and less policy-driven than “politics,” including the hunting and gathering by the “servant-monster” Caliban; the artisanal economy of magic-making that binds the spirit Ariel to a recognizably English apprenticeship contract; and the literary and theatrical economy shaped by transhistorical, transcultural performances, interpretations, and adaptations.