Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka is Africa's most prolific and
successful playwright as well as an innovative poet, novelist,
critic, and political activist. Educated in Nigeria and London,
Soyinka draws freely upon his own cross-cultural experience to
create an artistic hybrid between the traditions of Yoruba ritual
and festival and the conventions of Western European theater. This
eclecticism also stems in part from the flexible Yoruba world view
in which, for instance, the deity Sango, traditionally the god of
lightning, can assume the title of god of electricity, simply
absorbing modern Western civilization into the mythological
framework. In this comprehensive study, Derek Wright introduces the
reader to Yoruba themes, culture, and dramaturgy and shows how this
tradition permeates Soyinka's outlook. Ritual marks the
intersection between the divine and the human, the metaphysical and
the naturalistic, the spiritual and the communal; crossing these
boundaries places individuals and societies in crisis, a moment
both dangerous and potentially powerful. Thus, Soyinka applies and
reinterprets traditional mythological themes to serve his
passionate commitment to human freedom and social justice for
Nigeria in its transition to an independent state. Many of his
works were performed as street theater - often under harassment
from the authorities - as political protest against corruption and
power abuse in government. Wright surveys Soyinka's more than 30
works, focusing especially on the plays The Road, Death and the
King's Horseman, Madmen and Specialists, and A Play of Giants. He
also analyzes Soyinka's poems, novels, and autobiographies,
including The Interpreters, The Man Died, Ake, andIsara. He traces
the writer's life and achievements from his earliest years in
Nigeria, through productions of his plays in London, New York, and
Chicago, the turbulent years of political activism and
imprisonment, to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, and his
most recent works. Wright offers the student or general reader an
invaluable introduction to the enduring achievement of this
important African writer.
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