Wade Li’s “Just Another Tempest” uses a light touch to interpret The Tempest. In some places, the alterations (beyond the modernized language) are so subtle as to be nearly imperceptible. But Li’s decision to update the language in itself directs the reader’s attention to the importance of language generally in the play and in his interpretation. Li has Ariel speak entirely in the active voice, which shifts his relationship both to Prospero and to the way he carries out Prospero’s orders: he becomes visibly (or audibly) complicit in Prospero’s machinations. Caliban, on the other hand, uses language as a tool of resistance — as when he mutters over his shoulder, “Elohssa ko.” While Li leaves the symbolism of Caliban’s backward-speaking “native language” up for interpretation, it suggests the way “developed” nations treat “developing” nations as “backward,” while leaving open the possibility that Caliban’s language might have the power to undo or reverse the violence done by Prospero’s language.

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