| Chapter 1: | Caliban, Shakespeare’s Transformative Other |
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in which a binary and unplacable discursive opposition between races is produced” (Loomba 104). Rey Chow’s arguments are parallel to those introduced by both Fanon and Said and states that the meeting with an obstacle, for Prospero it is Caliban, renders Caliban’s subjugation necessary to explain the existence of an unknown. As a result, the native becomes an object in the study of the noncivilized world, allowing Prospero to speak on his behalf. Chow writes, “Whether positive or negative, the construction of the native remains at the level of image-identification, a process in which ‘our’ own identity is measured in terms of the degrees to which we resemble her and to which she resembles us” (127). Agency, then, becomes an important element in her discussion because, Hall states, who speaks and who is spoken of is not always the same. The differences that exist between those who label and those who are labeled begin to crumble when Caliban begins to castrate Prospero; a reappropriation of identity begins to take shape, leading to questions regarding the condition of the colonized. This act of castration is associated with the idea of phallogocentricism developed by the colonizer/patriarchal society. As a result, despite Prospero’s origin, Caliban is often transgressed upon, wearing labels that someone else has created for him. Loomba explains that even among the various colonial enterprises, stereotyping the native is consistant among the empires (107). Thus, phallogocentric language dominates discussions regarding the interpretations of any marginalized subject.
Caliban is faced with the realization that what he believes to be the truth in Prospero’s eyes is, in reality, one of many ways of looking at the world. This truth is a mirror through which the reflection seen is the one Prospero has convinced the gazer is what it should be, forcing on Caliban an inferiority complex. The native sees himself and his life as he has been taught to do. He