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3 and a half stars!
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The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite
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Wole Soyinka has translated—in both language and spirit—a great classic of ancient Greek theater. He does so with a poet's ear for the cadences and rhythms of chorus and solo verse as well as a commanding dramatic use of the central social and religious myth. In his hands The Bacchae becomes a communal feast, a tumultuous celebration of life, and a robust ritual of the human and social psyche. "The Bacchae is the rites of an extravagant banquet, a monstrous feast," Soyinka writes. "Man reaffirms his indebtedness to earth, dedicates himself to the demands of continuity, and invokes the energies of productivity. Reabsorbed within the communal psyche he provokes the resources of nature; in turn he is replenished for the cyclic rain in his fragile individual potency." The blending of two master playwrights—Euripides and Soyinka—makes for an unforgettable experience.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1973
This edition
- Format
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120 pages, Paperback
- Published
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July 17, 2004 by W. W. Norton \u0026 Company
- ISBN
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9780393325836
- ASIN
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0393325830
- Language
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English
About the author
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
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Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 17 votes)
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This is a hard play to talk about. On the one hand, I think it is a good play in its own right, and Soyinka is an extremely socially and politically conscious writer. However, I think that we can't forget that this is a reworking of Euripides' The Bacchae, and I think Soyinka has lost one major element of what made Euripides' play such powerful tragedy--our eventual sympathy for Pentheus. Soyinka spends so much time building Pentheus up as the oppressive, slave-owning military dictator that it is hard for us to feel bad when he is eventually killed. I think that, like the slaves who play a prominent role in Soyinka's play, we are rather pleased that the reign of Pentheus is over. We might feel bad for his mother and grandfather, who are the victims of Dionysus' violent revenge, but we don't sympathize with Pentheus. He goes from being a brutal dictator to a prancing fool, and the indictment of Dionysus for his brutal vengeance is somewhat weak. Of course, this change isn't surprising, given Soyinka's cultural and philosophical position as a postcolonialist and a Maxrist. And, a very critical viewer/reader might be deeply disturbed by our own sense of satisfaction at Pentheus' death, even though he was such a brutal and unlikeable character.
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Was pretty good but nothing amazing. I liked the language and the simplicity of the play. I might read the original to see the differences in Soyinka’s version.
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The introduction was interesting and delightful. The play itself would probably be really amazing performed. I think the last few lines would be alternately extremely tragic and extremely hilarious.
I do think Soyinka's Dionysus is transgressive not because of who he is but because of who his followers are. It's justified, but it makes the play much more grounded in certain respects.
I do think Soyinka's Dionysus is transgressive not because of who he is but because of who his followers are. It's justified, but it makes the play much more grounded in certain respects.
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I was not sure I wanted to read a play but this was very good. Applies to today as well as the past.
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i love this lol
i feel like there is less room for sympathy when it comes to pentheus (in contrast to the euripides version) and dionysus is much more wrathful and forceful. i think it also does well in illustrating the manic passion of the bacchae, which is something i felt less of in the original version. there were also lines here i felt resonated more with me,, there is something about this version that feels more engaging. though i think in terms of establishing malevolence and destruction, it lacks in contrast to euripides. dionysus feels more unforgiving here, but at the same time the text doesnt have the same sense of foreboding danger embedded in the original version.
edit: omg i think i know what made this version less severe (in terms of vibes lol),, there was no chorus!!! instead of a chorus, this version showcased more of the individual feelings of the bacchae instead of having a kind of collective consciousness.
i feel like there is less room for sympathy when it comes to pentheus (in contrast to the euripides version) and dionysus is much more wrathful and forceful. i think it also does well in illustrating the manic passion of the bacchae, which is something i felt less of in the original version. there were also lines here i felt resonated more with me,, there is something about this version that feels more engaging. though i think in terms of establishing malevolence and destruction, it lacks in contrast to euripides. dionysus feels more unforgiving here, but at the same time the text doesnt have the same sense of foreboding danger embedded in the original version.
edit: omg i think i know what made this version less severe (in terms of vibes lol),, there was no chorus!!! instead of a chorus, this version showcased more of the individual feelings of the bacchae instead of having a kind of collective consciousness.
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I read this adaptation as a case study for Professor Fiona Macintosh, Leo Kershaw, and Alex Silverman's collaborative seminar on Tragedy and Its Reception. I've come across Wole Soyinka's poetry before - most prominently at GCSE, where I studied a poem that I believe had something to do with a phone box (although might have entirely misremembered that). I love Euripides' Bacchae, and find it an endlessly interesting play, so I thought I might find this one interesting.
And it is. I really enjoyed the slave chorus in Soyinka's version, and the slightly schadenfreudic response to the upper-classes' suffering. I also enjoyed the fact that Pentheus spoke in rhetoric vaguely reminiscent of UK border enforcement. The ending, as well - with *SPOILERS* 'Why us? / 'Why not?' - was FANTASTIC.
The reason I'm only giving this three stars, though, is because I don't think it works as a text. I think this needs to be experienced in performance, and the text will always pale in comparison. I'm hoping to find a video performance that I can watch before Thursday, essentially.
And it is. I really enjoyed the slave chorus in Soyinka's version, and the slightly schadenfreudic response to the upper-classes' suffering. I also enjoyed the fact that Pentheus spoke in rhetoric vaguely reminiscent of UK border enforcement. The ending, as well - with *SPOILERS* 'Why us? / 'Why not?' - was FANTASTIC.
The reason I'm only giving this three stars, though, is because I don't think it works as a text. I think this needs to be experienced in performance, and the text will always pale in comparison. I'm hoping to find a video performance that I can watch before Thursday, essentially.
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spectacularly good, probably gonna be thinking about this for weeks. now need to see a production that follows soyinka's (fantastic) stage directions.
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