First One I and Then the Other: Identity and Intertextuality in Shakespeare's Caliban and Covington's Lizard

Peranton, Cynthia. "First One I and Then the Other: Identity and Intertextuality in Shakespeare's Caliban and Covington's Lizard." Reimagining Shakespeare for Children and Young Adults. Ed. Naomi J. Miller. New York: Routledge, 2003. 153-161. Print.


Medium: academic article

Genre: William Shakespeare, literary analysis

Synopsis:
Peranton explores the intertextual relationship between The Tempest's Caliban and the protagonist of Dennis Covington's YA novel Lizard. She argues that Covington both explicitly and implicitly links Lizard to Caliban, offering an illuminating and empathetic rethinking of Shakespeare's character. Peranton considers a variety of theoretical perspectives including structural, historical, and psychoanalytic. She also offers insight into teaching the two works at a high school level, providing examples from personal experience.

Notes:
This thought-provoking article would have been even more intriguing if I had read Covington's novel, although it is not necessary to understanding Peranton's major points. Since it discusses both Caliban and Lizard's physical oddity at length, I found myself wondering about the theme of deformity in Shakespeare. It also plays a major role in Richard III. One thing that was interesting was how insistent Peranton's students became about discussing the parallels between Lizard and Caliban (154).