Vibrant Matter and Magical Practice: Material Agency in Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

Associate Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran

Abstract

This article examines Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the context of posthumanism and material ecocriticism, arguing that the play anticipates the modern discourse of distributed agency and ecological interdependence. It will show how The Tempest subverts the classical categories of Renaissance humanism by examining Prospero’s interaction with the natural elements, Ariel’s liminal being and Caliban’s ambivalence between culture and nature. By using Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman subject and Jane Bennett’s theory of vibrant materialism, the study explains how the play does not advocate anthropocentrism and is dominated by agency, sovereignty and consciousness. On the island, human and non-human actors appear as agentive assemblages and micropolitical sites of power relations. This understanding is based on three core elements: the physical materiality of the island and its agency, the way magic is performed by a range of people, and the representation of non-human consciousness in the play. This analysis locates The Tempest as an early modern text and a work of environmental humanities, allowing for a better understanding of non-human agency, existence in Braidotti’s posthumanism and anthropology. The play does not negatively engage with the nexus of magic, nature and human export, but uses it to reinforce its exploration of global warming, ecological justice and human agency. This notion expands the field of history and politics of Shakespeare and the followers of ecological thinking by helping them understand the historical rootedness of ecological thinking without transcending the rationally imposed concerns common in our time.

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References

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Critical Language and Literary studies

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 23 January 2025

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