ABSTRACT
My definitions here of the colonial and post-colonial are historical, rather than in terms of changing fashions in literary criticism. In other words, the colonial Shakespeare I explore is the Shakespeare of the period of colonial rule, and the post-colonial Shakespeare the Shakespeare of the post-colonial period. More precisely, I have chosen the 1930s, the twilight decade of the British Empire, to represent the colonial, and the 1980s, the decade of late capital and globalization, to represent the post-colonial. For both periods, I focus on Shakespeare’s journeys to Africa. My versions of the colonial and post-colonial Shakespeares are assembled from representative metropolitan Shakespeare critics, and educational policy-makers for Africa. For the colonial Shakespeare, I accordingly focus on G. Wilson Knight’s criticism of The Tempest, and British education policymaker for Africa, A. Victor Murray. My picture of the post-colonial Shakespeare is based on Stephen Greenblatt’s criticism of The Tempest, and World Bank plans for education in Africa.
