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| wole soyinka writing style: Conversations with Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka, 2001 Within these interviews, Soyinka is forthright, clear and eloquent. He addresses many facets of his writing and plumbs pressing issues of culture, society and community. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Wole Soyinka: Literature, Activism, and African Transformation Bola Dauda, Toyin Falola, 2021-09-09 This timely and expansive biography of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian writer, Nobel laureate, and social activist, shows how the author's early years influence his life's work and how his writing, in turn, informs his political engagement. Three sections spanning his life, major texts, and place in history, connect Soyinka's legacy with global issues beyond the borders of his own country, and indeed beyond the African continent. Covering his encounters with the widespread rise of kleptocratic rule and international corporate corruption, his reflection on the human condition of the North-South divide, and the consequences of postcolonialism, this comprehensive biography locates Wole Soyinka as a global figure whose life and works have made him a subject of conversation in the public sphere, as well as one of Africa's most successful and popular authors. Looking at the different forms of Soyinka's work--plays, novels, and memoirs, among others--this volume argues that Soyinka used writing to inform, mobilize, and sometimes incite civil action, in a decades-long attempt at literary social engineering. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth Wole Soyinka, 2021-09-28 'Soyinka's greatest novel ... No one else can write such a book' - Ben Okri 'A high-jinks state-of-the-nation novel' - Chibundu Onuzo A FINANCIAL TIMES AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR A towering figure in world literature, Wole Soyinka aims directly at the corridors of power as he warns against corruption both of high office and of the soul, with a dazzling lightness of touch and gleeful irreverence. Much to Doctor Menka's horror, some cunning entrepreneur has decided to sell body parts from his hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Already at the end of his tether from the horrors he routinely sees in surgery, he shares this latest development with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Payne, who has never before met a puzzle he couldn't solve. Neither realise how close the enemy is, nor how powerful. Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is at once a savagely witty whodunit, a scathing indictment of Nigeria's political elite, and a provocative call to arms from one of the country's most relentless political activists and an international literary giant. MORE PRAISE FOR WOLE SOYINKA: 'You don't see the things the same when you encounter a voice like that' - Toni Morrison 'One of the best there is today, a poet and a thinker, who knows both how the world works and how the world should work' - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness Wole Soyinka, 1998-12-03 Nobel Laureate in Literature Wole Soyinka considers all of Africa--indeed, all the world--as he poses this question: once repression stops, is reconciliation between oppressor and victim possible? In the face of centuries-long devastation wrought on the African continent and her Diaspora by slavery, colonialism, Apartheid, and the manifold faces of racism, what form of recompense could possibly suffice? In a voice as eloquent and humane as it is forceful, Soyinka boldly challenges in these pages the notions of simple forgiveness, confession, and absolution as strategies for social healing. Ultimately, he turns to art--poetry, music, painting, etc.--as the one source that can nourish the seed of reconciliation: art is the generous vessel that can hold together the burden of memory and the hope of forgiveness. Based on Soyinka's Stewart-McMillan lectures delivered at the DuBois Institute at Harvard, The Burden of Memory speaks not only to those concerned specifically with African politics, but also to anyone seeking the path to social justice through some of history's most inhospitable terrain. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Writing Contemporary Nigeria: How Sefi Atta Illuminates African Culture and Tradition Walter Collins, 2015-09-18 Sefi Atta is one of the latest in a great line of female Nigerian writers. her works have garnered several literary awards; these include the Red Hen Press Short Story Award, the PEN International David TK Wong Prize, the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, and the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Atta's oeuvre has received the praise and respect of several noted African writers such as Buchi Emecheta, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Helon Habila. Atta's insights into the roles and treatment of women, neocolonial government structures, patriarchy, 21st-century phenomena such as Nigerian e-mail phishing and the role of geography and place in characters' lives make her works some of the most indelible offerings across contemporary African fiction. Nevertheless, there exists a relative dearth of critical analyses of her works. That Atta writes across the genres perhaps explains some of the lack of literary criticism of her works. This study will facilitate continued examination of Atta's writings and further dissemination of critique. In this premiere edited volume on the works of Sefi Atta, Collins has assembled contributors from around the globe who offer critical analysis on each of Atta's published novels and several of her short stories. The volume is divided into four sections with chapters grouped by thematic connections-Sisterhood, Womanhood and Rites of Passage, The City, Dark Aspects of Atta's Works and Atta's Literature in Application. The book examines Atta's treatment of these themes while referencing the proficiency of her writing and style. The collection includes an interview with Atta where she offers an insightful and progressive perspective on current language use by Africans. This book is the first aggregate of literary critique on selected works of Sefi Atta. This book is an important volume of literary criticism for all literature, world literature and African literature collections. It is part of the Cambria African Studies Series headed by Toyin Falola (University of Texas at Austin) with Moses Ochonu (Vanderbilt University). |
| wole soyinka writing style: Madmen and Specialists Wole Soyinka, 1987-09-01 An African playwright reveals his thoughts on man's betrayal of his vocation for power in this drama |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Interpreters Wole Soyinka, 2021-09-14 From the first Black winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—his debut novel about a group of young Nigerian intellectuals trying to come to grips with themselves and their changing country. First published in 1965. Friends since high school, the five young men at the heart of The Interpreters have returned to Lagos after studying abroad to embark on careers as a physician, a journalist, an engineer, a teacher, and an artist. As they navigate wild parties, affairs of the heart, philosophical debates, and professional dilemmas, they struggle to reconcile the cultural traditions and Western influences that have shaped them—and that still divide their country. Soyinka deftly weaves memories of the past through scenes of the present as the five friends move toward an uncertain future. The result is a vividly realized fictional world rendered in prose that pivots easily from satire to tragedy and manages to be both wildly funny and soaringly poetic. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Blackass A. Igoni Barrett, 2016-03-01 Furo Wariboko, a young Nigerian, awakes the morning before a job interview to find that he's been transformed into a white man. In this condition he plunges into the bustle of Lagos to make his fortune. With his red hair, green eyes, and pale skin, it seems he's been completely changed. Well, almost. There is the matter of his family, his accent, his name. Oh, and his black ass. Furo must quickly learn to navigate a world made unfamiliar and deal with those who would use him for their own purposes. Taken in by a young woman called Syreeta and pursued by a writer named Igoni, Furo lands his first-ever job, adopts a new name, and soon finds himself evolving in unanticipated ways. A. Igoni Barrett's Blackass is a fierce comic satire that touches on everything from race to social media while at the same time questioning the values society places on us simply by virtue of the way we look. As he did in Love Is Power, or Something Like That, Barrett brilliantly depicts life in contemporary Nigeria and details the double-dealing and code-switching that are implicit in everyday business. But it's Furo's search for an identity--one deeper than skin--that leads to the final unraveling of his own carefully constructed story. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Road Wole Soyinka, 1965 |
| wole soyinka writing style: African Literature and the CIA Caroline Davis, 2021-01-31 During the period of decolonisation in Africa, the CIA subsidised a number of African authors, editors and publishers as part of its anti-communist covert propaganda strategy. Managed by two front organisations, the Congress of Cultural Freedom and the Farfield Foundation, its Africa programme stretched across the continent, with hubs in Ibadan, Kampala, Nairobi, Cape Town and Johannesburg. This Element unravels the hidden networks and associations underpinning African literary publishing in the 1960s; it investigates the success of the CIA in disrupting and infiltrating African literary magazines and publishing firms, and determines the extent to which new circuits of cultural and literary power emerged. Based on new archival evidence relating to the Transcription Centre, The Classic and The New African, it includes case studies of Wole Soyinka, Nat Nakasa and Bessie Head, which assess how their literary careers were influenced by these transnational literary institutions, and their response to these interventions. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Poetry of Wole Soyinka Tanure Ojaide, 1994 The Nobel Laureate's reputation as a dramatist tends to cloud his poetic achievement, and in modern African literature, poetry lives in the shadow of fiction. The criticism of Soyinka's poetry has so far centred on his themes of individuality and death, his imagery, and on the controversy over his authenticity, obscurity and difficulty. Here, in a new approach, an academic himself and one of the leading younger generation of African poets, discusses critically the voice and viewpoint of the poet with the object of establishing Soyinka's persona. The book covers the personality and world view of the man, as revealed in his poetry. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka, 1994 This collection is an effort to engage with Soyinka and his work at the critical level his achievement requires. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Lion and the Jewel Wole Soyinka, 1973 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Indare and Other Poems Wole Soyinka, 1987-09-01 A selection of poetry discussing political tensions and Africa's cultural traditions. Also includes an adaptation of the creation myth of Ogun, the Yoruba God of Iron. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Collected Plays Wole Soyinka, 1973 `The Lion and the Jewel alone is enough to establish Nigeria as the most fertile new source of English-speaking drama since Synge's discovery of the Western Isles.' The Times The ironic development and consequences of `progress' may be traced through both the themes and the tone of the works included in this second volume of Wole Soyinka's plays. The Lion and the Jewel shows an ineffectual assault on past tradition soundly defeated. In Kongi's Harvest, however, the pretensions of Kongi's regime are also fatal. The denouement points the way forward. The two Brother Jero plays pursue that way, the comic `propheteering' of the earlier play giving way to the sardonic reality of Jero's Metamorphosis. Madmen and Specialists, Soyinka's most pessimistic play, concerns the physical, mental, and moral destruction of modern civil war. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Man Died Wole Soyinka, 1994 |
| wole soyinka writing style: You Must Set Forth at Dawn Wole Soyinka, 2007-12-18 The first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as a political activist of prodigious energies, Wole Soyinka now follows his modern classic Ake: The Years of Childhood with an equally important chronicle of his turbulent life as an adult in (and in exile from) his beloved, beleaguered homeland. In the tough, humane, and lyrical language that has typified his plays and novels, Soyinka captures the indomitable spirit of Nigeria itself by bringing to life the friends and family who bolstered and inspired him, and by describing the pioneering theater works that defied censure and tradition. Soyinka not only recounts his exile and the terrible reign of General Sani Abacha, but shares vivid memories and playful anecdotes–including his improbable friendship with a prominent Nigerian businessman and the time he smuggled a frozen wildcat into America so that his students could experience a proper Nigerian barbecue. More than a major figure in the world of literature, Wole Soyinka is a courageous voice for human rights, democracy, and freedom. You Must Set Forth at Dawn is an intimate chronicle of his thrilling public life, a meditation on justice and tyranny, and a mesmerizing testament to a ravaged yet hopeful land. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Ogun Abibimañ Wole Soyinka, Thomas Rug, 2007 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Soyinka Wole Soyinka, Martin Banham, Chuck Mike, Judith Greenwood, 2005 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Wole Soyinka: Literature, Activism, and African Transformation Bola Dauda, Toyin Falola, 2021-10-07 Part A: Introduction and Context -- Studies on Wole Soyinka -- Wole Soyinka in Historical Perspective -- Part B: Historical and Cultural Background -- Abeokuta: The City of Innovations and Creativity -- Collective Traditions, Childhood, and Rites of Passage -- Nobel Laureate: Literary Scholarship and Nation-building -- Relationships, Beliefs, and Values -- Part C: Literary Works -- Soyinka's Novels -- Dramatic Oeuvre -- Soyinka's Poetry -- The Politics of Soyinka's Literature -- Part D: Legacies and Conclusion -- Soyinka's Contribution to Literature -- Soyinka's Literary Achievements and the Use of Language -- Conclusion: Will Soyinka's Works Outlive Him? |
| wole soyinka writing style: Season of Anomy Wole Soyinka, 2021-09-14 From the first Black winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and one of our fiercest political activists—this political novel about the dangers of corruption, greed, and the desire for power is the follow-up to his acclaimed debut novel The Interpreters. An African nation's struggle for independence is interwoven with a tragic love story in this compelling novel. When Ofeyi, who writes advertising jingles for the Cocoa Corporation, is sent on a promotional tour of his unnamed country, he arrives at a coastal village whose remote location has long kept it insulated from the corrupt national government. Here Ofeyi discovers a traditional way of life that is still flourishing and he is inspired to spread its life-affirming values to his suffering country. But challenging the forces of greed and exploitation provokes a horrific response, and when Ofeyi’s beloved wife goes missing, he must travel across a war-scarred landscape in search of her. Infusing the myth of Orpheus with his signature lyricism and moral profundity, Soyinka creates a dazzling story about the clash between idealism and reality. |
| wole soyinka writing style: This Past Must Address Its Present Wole Soyinka, 1988 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Ake Wole Soyinka, 2008-07-10 The Nigerian playwright, poet, and novelist recounts his first eleven years growing up under the influence of his parents, traditional Yoruba customs, and Christian missionaries |
| wole soyinka writing style: Beyond Aesthetics Wole Soyinka, 2020-01-21 An intimate reflection on culture and tradition, creativity and power, that draws on a lifetime’s commitment to aesthetic encounter The playwright, poet, essayist, novelist, and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka is also a longtime art collector. This book of essays offers a glimpse into the motivations of the collector, as well as a highly personal look at the politics of aesthetics and collecting. Detailing moments of first encounter with objects that drew him in and continue to affect him, Soyinka describes a world of mortals, muses, and deities that imbue the artworks with history and meaning. Beyond Aesthetics is a passionate discussion of the role of identity, tradition, and originality in making, collecting, and exhibiting African art today. Soyinka considers objects that have stirred controversy, and he decries dogmatic efforts—whether colonial or religious—to suppress Africa’s artistic traditions. By turns poetic, provocative, and humorous, Soyinka affirms the power of collecting to reclaim tradition. He urges African artists, filmmakers, collectors, and curators to engage with their aesthetic and cultural histories. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Open Sore of a Continent Wole Soyinka, 1996 The events that led up to dissident writer Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution in 1995 marked Nigeria's decline from a post-colonial success story to its current military dictatorship. Wole Soyinka, whose own Nigerian passport was confiscated by the Nigerian military in 1994, explores the history and future of Nigeria in a compelling jeremiad that is as intense as it is provocative, learned, and wide-ranging. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Childe Internationale Wole Soyinka, 1987 |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Beatification of Area Boy Wole Soyinka, 1999 |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Masque of Africa V. S. Naipaul, 2010-10-19 Understanding Africa is critical for all concerned with the world today: in what promises to be his final great work of reportage, one of the keenest observers of the continent surveys the effects of belief and religion on the disparate peoples of Africa. The Masque of Africa is Nobel Prize-winning V. S. Naipaul's first major work of non-fiction to be published since his internationally bestselling Beyond Belief. Like all of Naipaul's great works of non-fiction, The Masque of Africa is superficially a book of travels — full of people, stories and landscapes he visits — but it also encompasses a larger narrative and purpose: to judge the effects of belief (whether in indigenous animisms, faiths imposed by other cultures, or even the cults of leaders and mythical history) upon the progress of civilization. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Wole Soyinka Obi Maduakor, 1986 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Kongi's Harvest. (11. Impr.) Wole Soyinka, 1979 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Language and Style in Soyinka Oluwole Adejare, 1992 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka, 1980 Distinguished scholars analyze the plays, poetry, and prose of Wole Smoyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Essays trace his career and place his work in the general context of African literature. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Man Died Wole Soyinka, 1988 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Ambiguous Adventure Hamidou Kane, 1963 A modern African political revolutionary discovers that he is neither black nor white, African nor French, but a cultural hybrid who does not even recognize himself. Samba Diallo, a simple revolutionary, attempts to win political freedom for his country by ridding it of despotism. Along the way he discovers that his integrity - and that of Africa - is threatened by the very attractiveness of the alien culture which he seeks to overcome. - Cover text. |
| wole soyinka writing style: Song of a Goat John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, 2004 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Art, Dialogue & Outrage Wole Soyinka, 1988 |
| wole soyinka writing style: Wole Soyinka Biodun Jeyifo, 2003-11-13 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. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Language of African Literature Edmund L. Epstein, Robert Kole, 1998 In this anthology, some of the most prolific and widely-read African novelists are analyzed - by some of the most advanced African linguists - from two divergent but mutually illuminating perspectives: a sophisticated linguistic and cultural analysis of their works as world-class literary products; and a cross-cultural analysis of the rich influence of one (or more) of the over-3,000 indigenous African languages on the English-language writing style of these African authors. |
| wole soyinka writing style: The Writing of Wole Soyinka Eldred D. Jones, 1988 Includes sections on Wole Soyinka's autobiographical work Ake, some of his plays, some collections of poetry and of two of his novels. North America: Heinemann |
| wole soyinka writing style: Isarà , 1991 |
Training | Women of Law Enforcement
AS WOMEN OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, WE RESPECT THOSE THAT HAVE PAVED THE WAY BEFORE US AND WE INSPIRE THOSE THAT WILL FOLLOW US. WE BUILD STRENGTH …
Wole Soyinka - Wikipedia
He is widely regarded as one of Africa's greatest writers and one of the world's most important dramatists. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural …
Wole Soyinka | Biography, Plays, Books, Nobel Prize, Famous ...
May 29, 2025 · Wole Soyinka (born July 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria) is a Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
Wole Soyinka - Academy of Achievement
Mar 16, 2022 · The poet and playwright Wole Soyinka is a towering figure in world literature. He has won international acclaim for his verse, as well as for novels such as The Interpreters. His …
Wole Soyinka: Biography, Playwright, Activist, Nobel Prize Winner
Aug 16, 2023 · Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet, author, teacher and political activist. In 1986, he became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Wole Soyinka - PEN America
A Yoruba born in Western Nigeria and educated in Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England, Wole Soyinka was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He has …
Home - Wole Soyinka Online
Explore Wole Soyinka's contribution to the world of literature. Over 6 decades of poems, novels, essays, memors, and more from the mind of a Nobel Laureate. Delve into insightful critiques …
African Poetry Digital Portal
Wole Soyinka Bibliography. By Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto. Created as part of the African Poetry Digital Portal project. Table of Contents. Introduction; Primary Works. Poetry in English …
Wolé Parks - Wikipedia
Wolé Parks (born July 27, 1982) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Dallas Griffin in the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns, and as Sam Alexander in the Lifetime …
Wole Soyinka: Biography, Plays, Books & Activism
Sep 13, 2023 · Wole Soyinka is one of Africa’s most prominent playwrights, poets, and activists. You may not have read any of his works in school, but you should definitely check him out. …
Training | Women of Law Enforcement
AS WOMEN OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, WE RESPECT THOSE THAT HAVE PAVED THE WAY BEFORE US AND WE INSPIRE THOSE THAT WILL FOLLOW US. WE BUILD STRENGTH …
Wole Soyinka - Wikipedia
He is widely regarded as one of Africa's greatest writers and one of the world's most important dramatists. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural …
Wole Soyinka | Biography, Plays, Books, Nobel Prize, Famous ...
May 29, 2025 · Wole Soyinka (born July 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria) is a Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
Wole Soyinka - Academy of Achievement
Mar 16, 2022 · The poet and playwright Wole Soyinka is a towering figure in world literature. He has won international acclaim for his verse, as well as for novels such as The Interpreters. His …
Wole Soyinka: Biography, Playwright, Activist, Nobel Prize Winner
Aug 16, 2023 · Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet, author, teacher and political activist. In 1986, he became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Wole Soyinka - PEN America
A Yoruba born in Western Nigeria and educated in Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England, Wole Soyinka was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He has …
Home - Wole Soyinka Online
Explore Wole Soyinka's contribution to the world of literature. Over 6 decades of poems, novels, essays, memors, and more from the mind of a Nobel Laureate. Delve into insightful critiques …
African Poetry Digital Portal
Wole Soyinka Bibliography. By Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto. Created as part of the African Poetry Digital Portal project. Table of Contents. Introduction; Primary Works. Poetry in English …
Wolé Parks - Wikipedia
Wolé Parks (born July 27, 1982) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Dallas Griffin in the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns, and as Sam Alexander in the Lifetime …
Wole Soyinka: Biography, Plays, Books & Activism
Sep 13, 2023 · Wole Soyinka is one of Africa’s most prominent playwrights, poets, and activists. You may not have read any of his works in school, but you should definitely check him out. …
