La Tempestad, otros “romances” de Shakespeare y la novela griega tardía

Abstract

Interpretations of The Tempest from a postcolonial point of view have prevailed for the last three decades. Some exponents of these interpretations, such as Stephen Orgel, based their approach on the psychoanalytic theory, an approach that can be traced to Octave Mannoni's work, published in 1950. Others, like Stephen Greenblatt, found support in the study of Shakespeare's source of inspiration. The most famous neo-historicist, for instance, supported by other specialists such as Greenblatt and Alden T. Vaughan, suggested that the story of the wreck of the Sea Venture in Bermuda, which occurred in 1609, and written by William Strachey, was the most likely source of The Tempest. Our paper will submerge in a different and less frequented tradition (though not ignored, as evidenced by the work of Carol Gesner). We will try to display textual available evidence that among the possible Shakespeare's sources, the major texts of the late Greek romance, translated into English and published a few years before the appearance of The Tempest, could have been more influential that recently considered.