Adaptations from Shakespeare: A Case Study of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann Dr. Mustabshira Siddiqui ISBN 978-81-946762-3-2 DOI: 10.36426/EXCELLEROPEN/2020/EOAPR20-10 Adaptations from Shakespeare: A Case Study of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann Dr. Mustabshira Siddiqui Exceller Open Adaptations from Shakespeare: A Case Study of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann Copyright © Dr. Mustabshira Siddiqui, 2020 All Rights Reserved Dr. Mustabshira Siddiqui , Lucknow, India Cover design by Exceller Open The book has been published with all reasonable efforts taken to make the material error -free after the consent of the author. 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ISBN: 978-81-946762-3-2 First published in India in 2020 by Exceller Open Exceller Open www.excelleropen.com DEDICATION Dedicated to my beloved Mother Mrs. Qaiser Jahan Siddiqui DECLARATION I, hereby, declare that the thesis entitled ‘Adaptations From Shakespeare: A Case Study Of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann’, submitted to University of Lucknow in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, is a record of original research work carried out by me under the guidance and supervision of Prof. Onkar Nath Upadhyay, Professor, Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow, Lucknow and that, it has not formed before, the basis for the award of any Degree, Diploma, Associateship, Fellowship or any other similar titles in this or any other university or Institution of higher learning. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Greatest Thanks to the Almighty God, the most beneficent, the most merciful of all! Many thanks to my life-coach, my mother; Mrs. Qaiser Jahan Siddiqui because I owe it all to her; my eternal cheerleader, my brother C. A. Shiraz Siddiqui: I miss our interesting and long-lasting chats; my forever interested, encouraging and always enthusiastic father Mr. Mohammad Zafaruddin Siddiqui: he was always keen to know what I was doing and how I was proceeding, although it is likely that he has never grasped what it was all about! I will miss your screams of joy whenever a significant momentous was reached and also just your general impudence. I am grateful to my other siblings; Mohammad Zeeshan Siddiqui, Mohammad Saif Siddiqui, Mohammad Kashif Siddiqui and my best friend Samreen Siddiqui, who have provided me thorough moral and emotional support in my life. I am also grateful to my colleagues and friends who have supported me along the way. A very special gratitude goes out to my Research Guide Professor Onkar Nath Upadhyay who was the epitome of strength till the end of my work. I am also grateful to the following University Faculty: Professor S.Z.H. Abidi, Professor V. P. Singh, Professor Nishi Pandey, Professor R. P. Singh, Professor Nishat Haider, Professor Nazneen Khan and special thanks to the Librarian Mrs. Shashi Mishrafor their unfailing support and assistance during the Ph.D. research. And finally, last but by no means least, to everyone in the University of Lucknow; it was great sharing academic life span with all of you. Thanks for all your encouragement! Mustabshira Siddiqui PREFACE The Ph.D. thesis entitled ‘Adaptations from Shakespeare: A Case Study of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann ’ aims at highlighting the adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays with special reference to The Tempest in the 21 st century critical perspectives such as post-colonialism, multiculturalism, intertextuality, comparative literature, language politics, nation-state concept and so on. The comparison in between the British dramatist, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Mauritian writer, Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann: A Mauritian Fantasy. Virahsawmy’s Toufann: A Mauritian Fantasy was written primarily in Creole language. The Tempest is Shakespeare’s one of the last plays in which he has forgiven his enemies. The play has been adapted many times by different playwrights like Aime Cesaire who wrote Une Tempest , Gloria Naylor who wrote Mama Day , and it was also adapted as a film Forbidden Planet. But the interesting thing is its Mauritian adaptation Toufann by Dev Virahsawmy, set in 21 st century. This play is like a techno play. Prospero is a computer expert, creating ‘toufann’ through visual slides in his lab. The thesis is divided into five Chapters in which the first Chapter is “Introduction” which is divided in two parts- the first part is about the ‘Historical Background of African Theatre’ in which there are various adaptations from Shakespeare and their relevance in present time and the second part talks about Shakespeare in Contemporary times. Shakespeare’s plays are the climax of significant developments in the theatre, more than any form of art which was capable of expressing his ferment. His name has become immortal; he is regarded as the greatest dramatist in English literature. His plays are for all ages, a versatile genius who has written as many as 37 plays and 154 sonnets, along with 2 long poems. The characters are throbbing with life and energy, not puppets or flat, one can never forget Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Rosalind, Cleopatra, Prospero and Miranda. The second chapter is about The Tempest as a colonial text; The Tempest endorses Prospero’s view of Caliban as a bestial savage, or dehumanization of colonial rule. Hence, The Tempest covers the whole span of so-called colonial period. It begins with the shipwreck i.e. the colonialism and ends with emancipation of the shipwrecked passengers as well as of their habitants of the island. The third Chapter discusses Toufann as a post-colonial text; it is not an adaptation, rather a recreation of Shakespeare's The Tempest , with a remote undertone of the Mauritian political spectrum. Dev Virahsawmy, along with a range of other writers from the African continent, has found in Shakespeare a vehicle to represent contemporary concerns and challenges. Virahsawmy saw that Creole was the most effective language for dramatic experiment and moving Shakespeare from English to Creole is like moving an audience from an elite minority to a popular majority. Virahsawmy also saw in Shakespeare a political playwright whose ideas are dynamic when dealing with the morality of power, the destructive forces of autocracy, and the corruption of kings, the blight of civil war, the foolishness of petty tyrants and the vanity of man. The central character of Toufann is Prospero and it has been played by Shaun Chawdhary whose recent appearances include playing Imran Khan in “The Murder of Stephen Lawrence” (Granada) and Ali in BBC's popular ‘Eastenders’. Prospero, the powerful but philosopher king, who spent his time in writing, reading and doing research in his laboratory, had left his brother Yago, the Prime Minister, with the responsibility of running the country's affairs. Yago, hooked on power, wanted more of its elixir. He joined forces with Prince Edmon and King Lir to overthrow his brother through a military coup. In the mêlée, Prospero's wife was killed and Kordelia, their newly-born daughter, was spared. Both of them were put on a “nutshell” of a boat in uncharted waters; they finally landed on an island and Prospero, the computer genius, turned it into a paradise. The only inhabitants of the island were Kalibann and his mother Bangoya, a black slave who was abandoned by a white pirate after he had fathered Kalibann, later became Prospero's scientific assistant. Prospero and his daughter Kordelia, beautifully played by Catherine Mobley, spent 20 years on the island. Through patience, hard work and research Prospero developed his science to have total control over people and ... nature. Prospero was, thus, able to create a cyclone to trap the ship, which was carrying those who had toppled him from his Throne. “Time of revenge had come,” Prospero proclaimed, “they would now have to face my Toufann, the instrument of my vengeance.” (Banham Act I scene II) The fourth Chapter does a comparative study between the two seminal texts, Post-colonial texts were considered as mini narratives, which only talk of the plight of colonial pigeons at the time of colonialism. The Tempest by William Shakespeare can be called a post-colonial text after its several adaptations after colonialism. Toufann by Dev Virahsawmy is such a text, which opens a liberal mindset for all post-colonial adaptations of The Tempest . Other adaptations of The Tempest talked about the colonization of Caliban, Ariel, Sycorax and Miranda, but Toufann does not talk of the colonization of either of them; it only talks about the emancipation of all.