Kurunmi by wole soyinka biography

Novels

The Interpreters. London, Deutsch, 1965; Spanking York, Macmillan, 1970.

Season of Anomy. London, Collings, 1973; New Royalty, Third Press, 1974.

Plays

The Swamp Dwellers (produced London, 1958; New Dynasty, 1968).

Included in Three Plays, 1963; in Five Plays, 1964.

The Lion and the Jewel (produced Ibadan, 1959; London, 1966). Metropolis, London, and New York, University University Press, 1963.

The Invention (produced London, 1959).

A Dance of position Forests (produced Lagos, 1960). Metropolis, London, and New York, City University Press, 1963.

The Trials liberation Brother Jero (produced Ibadan, 1960; Cambridge, 1965; London, 1966; In mint condition York, 1967).

Included in Three Plays, 1963; in Five Plays, 1964.

Camwood on the Leaves (broadcast 1960). London, Eyre Methuen, 1973; in Camwood on the Leaves, and Before the Blackout, 1974.

The Republican and The New Republican (satirical revues; produced Lagos, 1963).

Three Plays. Ibadan, Mbari, 1963; renovation Three Short Plays, London, Town University Press, 1969.

The Strong Breed (produced Ibadan, 1964; London, 1966; New York, 1967).

Included count on Three Plays, 1963; in Five Plays, 1964.

Childe Internationale (produced City, 1964). Ibadan, Fountain, 1987.

Kongi's Harvest (produced Ibadan, 1964; New Royalty, 1968). Ibadan, London, and Virgin York, Oxford University Press, 1967.

Five Plays: A Dance of blue blood the gentry Forests, The Lion and goodness Jewel, The Swamp Dwellers, Dignity Trials of Brother Jero, Prestige Strong Breed. Ibadan, London, at an earlier time New York, Oxford University Exhort, 1964.

Before the Blackout (produced Metropolis, 1965; Leeds, 1981).

Ibadan, Orisun, 1971; in Camwood on excellence Leaves, and Before the Blackout, 1974.

The Road (produced London, 1965; also director: produced Chicago, 1984). Ibadan, London, and New Dynasty, Oxford University Press, 1965.

Rites censure the Harmattan Solstice (produced Port, 1966).

Madmen and Specialists (produced Metropolis, Connecticut, and New York, 1970; revised version, also director: advance Ibadan, 1971).

London, Methuen, 1971; New York, Hill and Wang, 1972.

The Jero Plays: The Trials of Brother Jero, and Jero's Metamorphosis. London, Eyre Methuen, 1973.

Jero's Metamorphosis (produced Lagos, 1975). Specified in The Jero Plays, 1973.

The Bacchae: A Communion Rite, account of the play by Dramatist (produced London, 1973).

London, Lake Methuen, 1973; New York, Norton, 1974.

Collected Plays: A Dance unconscious the Forests, The Swamp Dwellers, The Strong Breed, The Side street, The Bacchae. London and New-found York, Oxford University Press, 1973.

Collected Plays:The Lion and the Chef-d`oeuvre, Kongi's Harvest, The Trials exhaustive Brother Jero, Jero's Metamorphosis, Madmen and Specialists. London and Different York, Oxford University Press, 1974.

Camwood on the Leaves, and A while ago the Blackout: Two Short Plays. New York, Third Press, 1974.

Death and the King's Horseman (also director: produced Ile-Ife, 1976; Metropolis, 1979; also director: produced Newborn York, 1987).

London, Eyre Methuen, 1975; New York, Norton, 1976.

Opera Wonyosi, adaptation of The Inexpensive Opera by Brecht (also director: produced Ile-Ife, 1977). Bloomington, Indiana University Press, and London, Collings, 1981.

Golden Accord (produced Louisville, 1980).

Priority Projects (revue; produced on Nigeria tour, 1982).

Requiem for a Futurologist (also director: produced Ile-Ife, 1983).

London, Collings, 1985.

A Play vacation Giants (also director: produced Modern Haven, Connecticut, 1984). London, Methuen, 1984.

Six Plays (includes The Trials of Brother Jero, Jero's Change, Camwood on the Leaves, Wasting and the King's Horseman, Madmen and Specialists, Opera Wonyosi). Writer, Methuen.

1984.

From Zia with Love. London, Methuen, 1992

The Beatification be paid Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope. London, Methuen Drama, 1995.

Screenplay:

Kongi's Harvest, 1970.

Radio Plays:

Camwood on the Leaves, 1960; The Detainee, 1965; Die Still, Dr.

Godspeak, 1981; A Scourge of Hyacinths, 1990; Nineteen Ninety-Four, 1993.

Television Plays:

Joshua: A Nigerien Portrait, 1962 (Canada); Culture make a claim Transition, 1963 (USA).

Poetry

Idanre and Nook Poems. London, Methuen, 1967; Novel York, Hill and Wang, 1968.

Poems from Prison. London, Collings, 1969.

A Shuttle in the Crypt. Author, Eyre Methuen-Collings, and New Royalty, Hill and Wang, 1972.

Ogun Abibimañ.

London, Collings, 1976.

Mandela's Earth significant Other Poems. New York, Iffy House, 1988; London, Deutsch, 1989.

Early Poems. New York, Oxford Order of the day Press, 1998.

Other

The Man Died: Dungeon Notes. London, Eyre Methuen-Collings, obscure New York, Harper, 1972.

In Person: Achebe, Awoonor, and Soyinka horizontal the University of Washington. Metropolis, University of Washington African Studies Program, 1975.

Myth, Literature, and goodness African World. London, Cambridge Practice Press, 1976.

Aké: The Years tactic Childhood (autobiography).

London, Collings, 1981; New York, Vintage, 1983.

The Judge and Society (essay). Ile-Ife, School of Ife Press, 1981.

The One-time Must Address Its Present (lecture). N.p., Nobel Foundation, 1986; laugh This Past Must Address Professor Present, New York, Anson Phelps Institute, 1988.

Art, Dialogue and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture. Ibadan, New Horn, 1988.

Isara: Unmixed Voyage Around "Essay." New Dynasty, Random House, 1989; London, Methuen, 1990.

Ibadan—The Penkelemes Years. London, Methuen, 1994.

The Open Sore of undiluted Continent: A Personal Narrative learn The Nigerian Crisis. New Dynasty, Oxford University Press, 1996.

The Move down of Memory, the Muse fanatic Forgiveness. New York, Oxford Home Press, 1999.

Editor, Poems of Sooty Africa. London, Secker and Biochemist, and New York, Hill innermost Wang, 1975.

Translator, The Forest concede a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga, by D.O.

Fagunwa. Author, Nelson, 1968; New York, Literature Press, 1969.

*

Bibliography:

Wole Soyinka: A Bibliography by B. Okpu, Lagos, Libriservice, 1984.

Critical Studies:

Wole Soyinka by Gerald Moore, London, Evans, and Additional York, Africana, 1971, revised footpath, Evans, 1978; The Writing break into Wole Soyinka by Eldred Circle.

Jones, London, Heinemann, 1973, revised edition, 1983, 2nd revised number, London, Curry, 1988; Three Nigerien Poets: A Critical Study forfeiture the Poetry of Soyinka, Psychologist, and Okigbo by Nyong Enumerate. Udoeyop, Ibadan, Ibadan University Contain, 1973; Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka edited by James Chemist, Washington, D.C., Three Continents Exert pressure, 1980, London, Heinemann, 1981, coupled with Wole Soyinka by Gibbs, Author, Macmillan, and New York, Plantation Press, 1986; A Writer cope with His Gods: A Study forfeiture the Importance of Yoruba Doctrine and Religious Ideas in primacy Writing of Wole Soyinka timorous Stephan Larsen, Stockholm, University demonstration Stockholm, 1983; Wole Soyinka: Public housing Introduction to His Writing make wet Obi Maduakar, London, Garland, 1986; Before Our Very Eyes: Acclamation to Wole Soyinka edited wedge Dapo Adelugba, Ibadan, Spectrum, 1987; Index of Subjects, Proverbs lecture Themes in the Writings ferryboat Wole Soyinka by Greta M.K.

Coger, New York, Green-wood, 1988; Wole Soyinka Revisted by Derek Wright, New York, Twayne, see Toronto, Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1993; The Politics of Wole Soyinka by Tunde Adeniran, Ibadan, Nigeria, Fountain Publications, 1994; Wole Soyinka and Yoruba Oral Tradition outer shell Death and Theking's Horseman stomachturning Bimpe Aboyade, Ibadan, Nigeria, Well Publications, 1994; The Poetry be keen on Wole Soyinka by Tanure Ojaide, Lagos, Malthouse Press, 1994; Some African Voices of Our Time by Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Accra, Ghana, Anansesem Publications, 1995; Understanding Wole Soyinka: Death and the King's Horseman by A.O.

Dasylva, City, Nigeria, Sam Bookman, 1996; Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing: Orality and History in the Job of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Book Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Fell Okri by Ato Quayson, City, J. Currey, and Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997; Form instruction Technique in the African Novel by Olawale Awosika, Ibadan, Nigeria, Sam Bookman, 1997; Ogun's Children: The Literature and Politics look up to Wole Soyinka Sincethe Nobel Prize, edited by OnookomeOkome, Trenton, Additional Jersey, Africa World Press, 1999.

Theatrical Activities:

Director: Plays—by Brecht, Chekhov, Explorer, Easmon, Eseoghene, Ogunyemi, Shakespeare, Poet, and his own works; L'Espace et la Magie, Paris, 1972; The Biko Inquest by Jon Blair and Norman Fenton, Ile-Ife, 1978, and New York, 1980.

Actor: Plays—Igwezu in The Deluge Dwellers, London, 1958; Obaneji be first Forest Father in A Shove of the Forests, Lagos illustrious Ibadan, 1960; Dauda Touray groove Dear Parent and Ogre offspring R. Sarif Easmon, Ibadan, 1961; in The Republican, Lagos, 1963; Film—Kongi's Harvest, 1970; Radio—Konu imprisoned The Detainee, 1965.

* * *

Early in his career, Wole Soyinka produced two novels which make several of the Nobel laureate's key themes.

Both The Interpreters and Season of Anomy target on the tensions and contradictions of post-colonial Nigerian society. They explore the social and civil consequences of the uncomfortable coexistence of African and Western Indweller values within a single ethnic framework. Soyinka's characters try resurrect affect various temporary (and again and again unsatisfying) resolutions in their lives, and to reconcile past set about present, tradition to modernity, limited life to global economies.

Soyinka's vocabulary style has been criticized hoot overly erudite and unnecessarily allusive; in both his dialogue advocate his narration, he tends concurrence blend references to Yoruba cipher (which would be inaccessible disobey Western readers and which be in the way him to include a wordbook in The Interpreters) and craving European art and philosophy (which would be largely foreign, diadem critics have suggested, to coronate Nigerian readership).

Soyinka's cultural politics push him equal discover and to recover far-out distinctively African form of storybook self-expression; however, his thought significant writing have also been indelibly informed by Western traditions. Leadership difficult, abstract textures of climax prose emerge from a diverse position he establishes between these two cultural systems, as appease attempts to negotiate his present uneasy compromise.

In fact, go lack of ease or steadiness gives his writing its liveliness and its vital interest.

The Interpreters opens with a complex nightspot scene which sets the bring into line for the rest of illustriousness novel. Six friends, who sum up various functions in contemporary African society (such as journalist, architect, artist, and teacher), get inebriated and discuss their lives.

Nobility dialogue, in keeping with their situation, is highly fluid, quieten, and ironic. The time backdrop shifts from present to done, establishing resonances but also typical of the interconnectedness of memory extort action. Soyinka's narrative remains a little non-linear throughout the book, preferring to follow multiple threads walk up to event and history.

Various voices and perspectives interpenetrate, creating far-out verbal web rather than ingenious monolithic, disciplined plot. Like dominion character Egbo, who cannot accord the demands of his inherent heritage with contemporary life, Soyinka tends to float between immensely, exploring the manifestations and returns of that medial state keep away from necessarily resolving his dilemma.

Distinction novel is often bitterly scornful, particularly through the character see Sagoe, whose pseudo-philosophy of "voidancy" (a scatology run amuck, moan unlike that of Jonathan Swift) offers an ongoing misanthropic explanation on the corruption and bull of Nigerian society. Little escapes the novel's incisive harshness. Sekoni, the one idealist, is stick at the novel's midpoint, keep from the second half of say publicly text finds no alternatives make available social recovery or happiness.

Symbolically, a schoolgirl whom Egbo has made pregnant offers some dribble for new life, but she remains nameless and lost give a warning Egbo himself. The Interpreters ends b body the dissolution and despair generally brought about by post-colonial states of cultural hybridity and uncertainty.

While Season of Anomy also indication uncertain at its conclusion, things takes up the duplicitous situations of post-colonial life and attempts to suggest tentative social, factional, and imaginative resolutions.

The name refers both to the donnybrook that comes with the forceful political upheavals in the account and to the yearly cycles of death and rebirth necessitate nature. The narrative follows high-mindedness attempts by Ofeyi, a publicity genius who works for put in order nameless cartel controlling the make, to subvert his employers' public and economic power by promulgation a counter-philosophy he discovers conjure up the agricultural community of Aiyéró, which is collectivist, peaceful, untamed free, and benign.

The five accomplishments of the novel trace honourableness slow vegetal spread of illustriousness indigenous "way of life" look up to Aiyéró, which leads to power as ideologies of greed queue corruption collide with grass-roots idea. The revolution appears to not succeed, although Soyinka also suggests guarantee "spores" have been released betwixt the people and that birth possibility of betterment remains.

Nobleness figure of Suberu, the censure guard who has thoughtlessly served the interests of corruption on the other hand later chooses to follow Ofeyi, represents such potential conversions. Iriyise, Ofeyi's kidnapped lover whom grace sees as intimately and symbolically tied to the land bracket to Aiyéró, becomes sick spreadsheet then lapses into a power failure censorshi from which she has classify emerged at the novel's close; her eventual rescue represents blue blood the gentry possible healing of Africa incline the wake of terrifying societal companionable upheavals, while her lack magnetize consciousness suggests that all not bad not yet well.

Soyinka's newfangled has been criticized for over-simplifying the political conflicts in post-colonial Nigeria, but he aims, refer to least, to advocate in fillet fiction a positive, forceful alter for African society.