Along with much of Césaire's other work, Une Tempête is widely discussed. Some scholars, such as Ania Loomba, take issue with the idea of appropriating tales of imperialism and constructing them into anti-imperialist pieces. She comments that this style of response is potentially inhibitory to progress. Her main point is that changing the narrative not only reduces the relative legitimacy of the non-European world, but furthermore weakens the response by the sheer need to use such source material. Furthermore, she goes so far as to imply that the need to engage with the original text also implies that there is some aspect of truthfulness in that work, and almost affirms Eurocentric ideology.
Other scholars, like Russell West, approve the method of speaking directly back to the source material. West believes the play has a specific focus on assimilation and that the play grapples with the concept in a compelling way. He also sees the value in assessing the work critically, and agrees with Loomba's initial skepticism, but essentially comes to the aforementioned conclusion about assimilation.
There are nonetheless many who agree with Loomba, famously including Maryse Condé, who even go as far as to say the creation of a movement like Négritude, which this work would fall under, legitimizes many of the problematic ideas that colonialism itself created. She laments that the need to facilitate an explicitly Black cultural movement really just affirms Western ideologies and prevents larger scale progress.[9]
