Stephen Cruikshank

Abstract

This article presents the metaphor of the character Caliban seen in Shakespeare's The Tempest that has been used as a manner to compare colonial subjectivities in postcolonial contexts throughout the Caribbean. Analyzing the sociological and economical impact of tourism on Cuba, this paper explores how tourism has given rise to a new subjected "Caliban" in Cuba through the promotion of social and economic disparities. The disparities inherent between the tourist and the Cuban in the country are seen all throughout the island: the disparity arrives from outside of the island, affects the operations within the island, and even influences the operations "below" the island through the development of the Cuban black-market. Caliban, as this paper proposes, is subjected in "every inch" of the island, yet no longer by colonialists that arrive by ship, but by tourists arriving by plane.

Keywords

Cuba; Cuban; Tourism; Caliban; Socialism; critiques of capitalism; globalization; social justice; Caribbean; Culture; Postcolonialism; Colonialism; Black-market; prostitution; socialism; communism

From: Socialist Studies 2017 12 (1) “Living Socialism: Past, Present & Future(s)”

Editor: Wang Yi