The Science of Illusion-making in Aimé Césaire’s La tragédie du roi Christophe and Une tempête

This essay considers Césaire’s theater from the point of view of performance, by focusing on two works from his trilogy on decolonization: La tragédie du roi Christophe and Une tempête. The ability to create illusions, including the scientific knowledge necessary to do so, is portrayed as a European instrument, which can be used either negatively, to deceive the characters with the objective of exploiting them, or positively, as a means of raising consciousness in a manner that provokes development. The making of illusions by the different characters unlocks a game of mise en abyme, which leads to the establishment of a metatheatrical discourse about the role of theater in economic development. Ultimately, the frequent representation of illusion-making as a scientific or technical practice reflects Césaire’s views about the transfer of Western cultural elements—including both theater and modern technologies—to the former colonies in the era of decolonization.