Wole Soyinka : politics, poetics, and postcolonialism / Biodun Jeyifo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jeyifo, Biodun, 1946- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in African and Caribbean literature ; 9.

Cambridge studies in African and Caribbean literature ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soyinka, Wole--Criticism and interpretation.

Soyinka, Wole.

Soyinka, Wole--Political and social views.

Politics and literature--Nigeria.

Politics and literature.

Postcolonialism in literature.

Postcolonialism--Nigeria.

Postcolonialism.

Nigeria--In literature.

Nigeria.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxxiii, 322 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Biodun Jeyifo examines the connections between the innovative and influential writings of Wole Soyinka and his radical political activism. Jeyifo carries out detailed analyses of Soyinka's most ambitious works, relating them to the controversies generated by Soyinka's use of literature and theatre for radical political purposes. He gives a fascinating account of the profound but paradoxical affinities and misgivings Soyinka has felt about the significance of the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century. Jeyifo also explores Soyinka's works with regard to the impact on his artistic sensibilities of the pervasiveness of representational ambiguity and linguistic exuberance in Yoruba culture. The analyses and evaluations of this study are presented in the context of Soyinka's sustained engagement with the violence of collective experience in post-independence, postcolonial Africa and the developing world. No existing study of Soyinka's works and career has attempted such a systematic investigation of their complex relationship to politics.

Contents:

'Representative' and unrepresentable modalities of the self: the gnostic, worldly and radical humanism of Wole Soyinka

Tragic mythopoesis as postcolonial discourse

critical and theoretical writings

The "drama of existence": sources and scope

Ritual, anti-ritual and the festival complex in Soyinka's dramatic parables

The ambiguous freight of visionary mythopoesis: fictional and nonfictional prose works

Poetry, versification and the fractured burdens of commitment

"Things fall together": Wole Soyinka in his own write.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-316) and index.

ISBN:

9780511097843

0511097840

9781107126459

1107126452

9781280162312

1280162317

9780511116001

0511116004

9780511065385

0511065388

9780511205408

0511205406

9780511308314

0511308310

9780511486593

0511486596

9780511067518

0511067518

OCLC:

437068977

Publisher Number:

2027/heb07661 hdl