The Tempest in South Africa: Multilingualism and our profit on't

Responding simultaneously to The Tempest and Derrida's Monolingualism of the other, and placing the exchange with and between these texts in the context of South Africa, this article is concerned with linguistic identity. Without entirely contesting Derrida's claims concerning monolingualism, thearticle explores questions about multilingualism and adherent multiple discourses in South Africa through an analysis of linguistic status - especially of that of Caliban - in The Tempest. The approach is principally deconstructive; theoretical questions concerning the role of Shakespeare and Shakespeare criticism in South Africa are also touched upon.