The Interpreters: Ritual, Violence, and Social Regeneration in the Writing of Wole Soyinka

Download or read book The Interpreters: Ritual, Violence, and Social Regeneration in the Writing of Wole Soyinka written by Bello, Hakeem and published by Kraft Books. This book was released on 2015-03-18 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concern for social regeneration stands as the factor that animates Soyinka's life-long involvement in social and political activism, leading to his incarceration for two years during the civil war, and his having to flee into exile during the period of Sani Abacha's dictatorship. Soyinka expresses this same concern for social regeneration in his writings, using different metaphors. The focus of this work lies in the exploration of the articulations of social regeneration in the works of Wole Soyinka. The first part focuses on the dramatic works, and the argument of the author is that the metaphor adopted by Africa's foremost playwright in articulating his vision of social regeneration is that of ritual. Attention shifts in part two to Soyinka's two novels; and here, Bello goes to the roots of Yoruba metaphysics to fetch a metaphor which describes a creature with contradictory personality; which at once is committed to the regeneration of the social order while at the same time retaining a vindictive, vengeful nature.