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I read it because I was going to see it on stage.
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Death and the King's Horseman
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This Norton Critical Edition of Death and the King's Horseman is the only student edition available in the United States. Based on events that took place in 1946 in the ancient Yoruban city of Oyo, Soyinka's acclaimed and powerful play addresses classic issues of cultural conflict, tragic decision-making, and the psychological mindsets of individuals and groups. The text of the play is accompanied by an introduction and explanatory annotations for the many allusions to traditional Nigerian myth and culture. "Backgrounds and Sources" helps readers understand Death and the King's Horseman 's traditional African contexts and the role of theater in African culture. Included are a map of Yoruba-land, discussions of Yoruban religious beliefs and cultural traditions, Soyinka on the various forms that theater has taken in African culture in order to survive, and Anthony Appiah on Soyinka's struggle with the problem of African identity in the creation of Death and the King's Horseman . Commentary on the play as both a theatrical production and a classroom text is provided by Gerald Moore, Tanure Ojaide, and Martin Rohmer.
"Criticism" collects nine major essays on the play and the difficulties it presents to readers. Contributors include D. S. Izevbaye, Eldred Durosimi Jones, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Biodun Jeyifo, Wole Soyinka, Joan Hepburn, Adebayo Williams, David Richards, and Olakunle George.
A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
"Criticism" collects nine major essays on the play and the difficulties it presents to readers. Contributors include D. S. Izevbaye, Eldred Durosimi Jones, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Biodun Jeyifo, Wole Soyinka, Joan Hepburn, Adebayo Williams, David Richards, and Olakunle George.
A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1975
This edition
- Format
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254 pages, Paperback
- Published
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November 5, 2002 by W. W. Norton \u0026 Company
- ISBN
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9780393977615
- ASIN
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0393977617
- 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(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
26(26%)
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99 reviews All reviews
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Brilliant read, this. I especially liked how the characters are not the usual Westerner/African stereotypes, and due to their own individual differences, the conflict between them arises. Soyinka's plays are always insightful and deep.
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(2 1/2 stars)
Meh. The story's language was beautifully poetic, but the actual story-line was only ok. As for the criticism in the back, I got quite bored of colonial and post-colonial methodology by the time we finished (we read this in Lit Methods).
Meh. The story's language was beautifully poetic, but the actual story-line was only ok. As for the criticism in the back, I got quite bored of colonial and post-colonial methodology by the time we finished (we read this in Lit Methods).
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I liked this play probably for different reasons then most people read it. I like how he is using this play as a communication with the audience, and where dance and music play an integral part to the overall structure. The diction is good, as well as the characters.
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4.5 <3 yoruba culture is so rich & i love reading things by yoruba writers
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A play that really evokes ideals of cultural clash, despite the author's notes stating that his story is not focused on cultural clash. What is the lesson to be learned from this play? I am not sure but the play brings up several question, such as when can one's ideal lead to objectifying and tampering another's culture? Is it better to step in a situation you see as not moral, or turn a blind eye-while both have consequences. If you call something by a different name does it truly change the meaning, i.e. "murderous defeats" which is "war" or "strategic victories?"
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Not a clash of colonial cultures but a deadly collision of pride, religion and philosophy. Two men, both bent on the correctness of their ways, destroy lives in order to prove that they alone know the meaning of tragedy. Although Soyinka has an opinion on which is right, he leaves that thought to settle in the dust of the play's feverish, enchanted desire. What's most amazing is the playwright's ability to call up real human emotion where so many others would let stock characters play their parts; you are surprised how much more this scene in a British Nigeria can terrify you when stereotypes are cast aside.
"Not-I was lately heard even in the lair of beasts... Not-I became the answering name of the restless bird, that little one whom Death found nesting in the leaves when whisper of his coming ran before him on the wind. Not-I has long abandoned home. This same dawn I heard him twittering in the gods' abode. Ah, companions of the living world, what a thing this is, that even those we call immortal should fear to die" [11:]
"Split an iroko tree in two, hide a woman's beauty in its heartwood and seal it up again - Elesin, journeying by, would make his camp beside that tree of all the shades in the forest." [18:]
"it is the death of war that kills the valiant,
Death of water is how the swimmer goes
It is the death of markets that kills the trader
And death of indecision takes the idle away
The trade of the cutlass blunts its edge
And the beautiful die the death of beauty."
"Not-I was lately heard even in the lair of beasts... Not-I became the answering name of the restless bird, that little one whom Death found nesting in the leaves when whisper of his coming ran before him on the wind. Not-I has long abandoned home. This same dawn I heard him twittering in the gods' abode. Ah, companions of the living world, what a thing this is, that even those we call immortal should fear to die" [11:]
"Split an iroko tree in two, hide a woman's beauty in its heartwood and seal it up again - Elesin, journeying by, would make his camp beside that tree of all the shades in the forest." [18:]
"it is the death of war that kills the valiant,
Death of water is how the swimmer goes
It is the death of markets that kills the trader
And death of indecision takes the idle away
The trade of the cutlass blunts its edge
And the beautiful die the death of beauty."
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“No I am not shocked, Mrs. Pilkings. You forget that I have now spent four years among your people. I discovered that you have no respect for what you do not understand.”
actual rating: 3.5/5
overall i really enjoyed the show and the various themes that it touched about death and community/duty. i’m not every well versed in yoruba tragedy but i felt like this was a good introduction to it. obviously soyinka is a very talented writer and put a lot of thought into this show and i would love to read more of his works. also side note but literally fuck colonialism!!!!
actual rating: 3.5/5
overall i really enjoyed the show and the various themes that it touched about death and community/duty. i’m not every well versed in yoruba tragedy but i felt like this was a good introduction to it. obviously soyinka is a very talented writer and put a lot of thought into this show and i would love to read more of his works. also side note but literally fuck colonialism!!!!
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