What Next Miranda?: Marina Warner's Indigo

Each century seems to have its own interpellative dream-text: The Tempest for the 17th century; Robinson Crusoe for the 18th century; Jane Eyre for the 19th century; Heart of Darkness for the turn of this century. Such texts serve as pre-texts to others; they underwrite them. Yet, in its nearly four centuries of existence, The Tempest has washed ashore more alluvial debris than any other text: parodies, rewritings and adaptations of all kinds. Incessantly, we keep revisiting the stage of Shakespeare's island and we continue to dredge up new meanings from its sea-bed.