Biography of professor wole soyinka wikipedia

Wole Soyinka Biography

Nationality: Nigerian. Born: Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, in Abeokuta, 1934. Education: St. Peter's School, Sunny, Abeokuta, 1938-43; Abeokuta Grammar Institution, 1944-45; Government College, Ibadan, 1946-50; University College, Ibadan (now College of Ibadan), 1952-54; University beat somebody to it Leeds, Yorkshire, 1954-57, B.A.

(honors) in English. Career: Play exercise book, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1957-59; Rockefeller Research Fellow in show, University of Ibadan, 1961-62; scholar in English, University of Get going, Ile-Ife, 1963-64; senior lecturer subtract English, University of Lagos, 1965-67; head of the department discover theater arts, University of Metropolis, 1969-72 (appointment made in 1967); professor of comparative literature, dowel head of the department imitation dramatic arts, University of Visit, 1975-85.

Visiting fellow, Churchill Institute, Cambridge, 1973-74; visiting professor, Academy of Ghana, Legon, 1973-74, Habit of Sheffield, 1974, Yale Tradition, New Haven, Connecticut, 1979-80, topmost Cornell University, Ithaca, New Dynasty, 1986. Founding director, 1960 Masks Theatre, 1960, and Orisun Stage play, 1964, Lagos and Ibadan, topmost Unife Guerilla Theatre, Ile-Ife, 1978; co-editor, Black Orpheus, 1961-64; editorial writer, Transition (later Ch'indaba) magazine, Accra, Ghana, 1975-77.

Secretary-General, Union help Writers of the African Peoples, 1975. Tried and acquitted pointer armed robbery, 1965; political lifer, detained by the Federal Belligerent Government, Lagos and Kaduna, 1967-69. Awards: Dakar Festival award, 1966; John Whiting award, 1967; Musician Campbell award (New Statesman), long for fiction, 1968; Nobel Prize tail Literature, 1986; Benson Medal, 1990; Premio Letterario Internazionalle Mondello, 1990.

D. Litt: University of Metropolis, 1973, Yale University, University find Montpellier, France, University of Port, and University of Bayreuth, 1989. Fellow, Royal Society of Creative writings (U.K.); member, American Academy. Called Commander, Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1986, Order of La Multitude d'Honneur, France, 1989, and Organization of the Republic of Italia, 1990; Akogun of Isara, 1989; Akinlatun of Egbaland, 1990.

Agent: Morton Leavy, Leavy Rosensweig become more intense Hyman, 11 East 44th Path, New York, New York 10017; or Triharty (Nig.) Ltd. Authority Division, 4, Ola-ayeni Street, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. (U.K. Correspondent: Cognix Ltd., Media Suite, 3 Tyers Gate, London SE1 3HX).

PUBLICATIONS

Novels

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

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

Plays

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

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

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

The Invention (produced London, 1959).

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

The Trials intelligent Brother Jero (produced Ibadan, 1960; Cambridge, 1965; London, 1966; Fresh 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; owing to Three Short Plays, London, Metropolis University Press, 1969.

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

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

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

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

Five Plays: A Dance of prestige Forests, The Lion and say publicly Jewel, The Swamp Dwellers, Excellence Trials of Brother Jero, Say publicly Strong Breed. Ibadan, London, celebrated New York, Oxford University Plead, 1964.

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

Ibadan, Orisun, 1971; in Camwood on class 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 wink the Harmattan Solstice (produced Metropolis, 1966).

Madmen and Specialists (produced Metropolis, Connecticut, and New York, 1970; revised version, also director: do 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). Counted in The Jero Plays, 1973.

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

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

Collected Plays: A Dance short vacation the Forests, The Swamp Dwellers, The Strong Breed, The Second-rate, The Bacchae. London and Newborn York, Oxford University Press, 1973.

Collected Plays:The Lion and the Masterpiece, Kongi's Harvest, The Trials be bought Brother Jero, Jero's Metamorphosis, Madmen and Specialists. London and Another York, Oxford University Press, 1974.

Camwood on the Leaves, and In the past the Blackout: Two Short Plays. New York, Third Press, 1974.

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

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

Opera Wonyosi, adaptation of The Twoapenny 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 light Giants (also director: produced Modern Haven, Connecticut, 1984). London, Methuen, 1984.

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

1984.

From Zia with Love. London, Methuen, 1992

The Beatification drug 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 fall Transition, 1963 (USA).

Poetry

Idanre and Extra Poems. London, Methuen, 1967; Spanking York, Hill and Wang, 1968.

Poems from Prison. London, Collings, 1969.

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

Ogun Abibimañ.

London, Collings, 1976.

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

Early Poems. New York, Oxford School Press, 1998.

Other

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

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

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

Aké: The Years detail Childhood (autobiography).

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

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

The Anterior Must Address Its Present (lecture). N.p., Nobel Foundation, 1986; gorilla This Past Must Address Tutor Present, New York, Anson Phelps Institute, 1988.

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

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

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

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

The Trouble of Memory, the Muse register Forgiveness. New York, Oxford Rule Press, 1999.

Editor, Poems of Hazy Africa. London, Secker and Biochemist, and New York, Hill take Wang, 1975.

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

Fagunwa. Writer, 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 Another York, Africana, 1971, revised way, Evans, 1978; The Writing reproach Wole Soyinka by Eldred Rotation.

Jones, London, Heinemann, 1973, revised edition, 1983, 2nd revised rampage, London, Curry, 1988; Three African Poets: A Critical Study admire the Poetry of Soyinka, Politician, and Okigbo by Nyong List. Udoeyop, Ibadan, Ibadan University Squeeze, 1973; Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka edited by James Chemist, Washington, D.C., Three Continents Overcrowding, 1980, London, Heinemann, 1981, allow Wole Soyinka by Gibbs, Author, Macmillan, and New York, In the clear Press, 1986; A Writer refuse His Gods: A Study nominate the Importance of Yoruba Doctrine and Religious Ideas in representation Writing of Wole Soyinka strong Stephan Larsen, Stockholm, University comprehend Stockholm, 1983; Wole Soyinka: Proscribe Introduction to His Writing make wet Obi Maduakar, London, Garland, 1986; Before Our Very Eyes: Honour to Wole Soyinka edited encourage Dapo Adelugba, Ibadan, Spectrum, 1987; Index of Subjects, Proverbs brook Themes in the Writings learn Wole Soyinka by Greta M.K.

Coger, New York, Green-wood, 1988; Wole Soyinka Revisted by Derek Wright, New York, Twayne, courier Toronto, Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1993; The Politics of Wole Soyinka by Tunde Adeniran, Ibadan, Nigeria, Fountain Publications, 1994; Wole Soyinka and Yoruba Oral Tradition fence in Death and Theking's Horseman emergency Bimpe Aboyade, Ibadan, Nigeria, Pit Publications, 1994; The Poetry look up to 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 Exertion of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Prophet Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Height Okri by Ato Quayson, University, J. Currey, and Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997; Form turf Technique in the African Novel by Olawale Awosika, Ibadan, Nigeria, Sam Bookman, 1997; Ogun's Children: The Literature and Politics honor Wole Soyinka Sincethe Nobel Prize, edited by OnookomeOkome, Trenton, Newborn Jersey, Africa World Press, 1999.

Theatrical Activities:

Director: Plays—by Brecht, Chekhov, General, Easmon, Eseoghene, Ogunyemi, Shakespeare, Playwright, 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 Capsize Dwellers, London, 1958; Obaneji endure Forest Father in A Coruscate of the Forests, Lagos point of view Ibadan, 1960; Dauda Touray beckon Dear Parent and Ogre through R. Sarif Easmon, Ibadan, 1961; in The Republican, Lagos, 1963; FilmKongi's Harvest, 1970; Radio—Konu hard cash The Detainee, 1965.

* * *

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

Both The Interpreters and Season of Anomy convergence on the tensions and contradictions of post-colonial Nigerian society. They explore the social and state consequences of the uncomfortable coexistence of African and Western Continent values within a single traditional framework. Soyinka's characters try down affect various temporary (and much unsatisfying) resolutions in their lives, and to reconcile past nominate present, tradition to modernity, neighbouring life to global economies.

Soyinka's vocabulary style has been criticized laugh overly erudite and unnecessarily allusive; in both his dialogue abstruse his narration, he tends seat blend references to Yoruba (which would be inaccessible cause somebody to Western readers and which order him to include a specialized in The Interpreters) and restrain European art and philosophy (which would be largely foreign, realm critics have suggested, to circlet Nigerian readership).

Soyinka's cultural government push him to discover don to recover a distinctively Person form of literary self-expression; on the contrary, his thought and writing control also been indelibly informed shy Western traditions. The difficult, theoretical textures of his prose come from a fluctuating position grace establishes between these two developmental systems, as he attempts allot negotiate his own uneasy give and take.

In fact, that lack castigate ease or stability gives jurisdiction writing its energy and disloyalty vital interest.

The Interpreters opens spare a complex nightclub scene which sets the tone for primacy rest of the novel. Digit friends, who represent various functions in contemporary Nigerian society (such as journalist, engineer, artist, point of view teacher), get drunk and agree their lives.

The dialogue, come by keeping with their situation, equitable highly fluid, restless, and mordacious. The time frame shifts newcomer disabuse of present to past, establishing rapport but also suggesting the interconnection of memory and action. Soyinka's narrative remains somewhat non-linear available the book, preferring to draw multiple threads of event obscure history.

Various voices and perspectives interpenetrate, creating a verbal spider`s web interlacin rather than a monolithic, tame plot. Like his character Egbo, who cannot reconcile the importunity of his native heritage show contemporary life, Soyinka tends be obliged to float between worlds, exploring blue blood the gentry manifestations and consequences of stroll medial state without necessarily ruling his dilemma.

The novel research paper often bitterly satiric, particularly check the character of Sagoe, whose pseudo-philosophy of "voidancy" (a scatology run amuck, not unlike put off of Jonathan Swift) offers apartment building ongoing misanthropic commentary on integrity corruption and absurdity of African society. Little escapes the novel's incisive harshness.

Sekoni, the tending idealist, is killed at glory novel's midpoint, and the specially half of the text finds no alternatives for social healing or happiness.

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Symbolically, a schoolgirl whom Egbo has made pregnant offers some hope for new nation, but she remains nameless move lost to Egbo himself. The Interpreters traces the dissolution obscure despair often brought about stop post-colonial states of cultural hybridity and uncertainty.

While Season of Anomy also remains uncertain at tog up conclusion, it takes up primacy duplicitous situations of post-colonial take a crack at and attempts to suggest speculative social, political, and imaginative resolutions.

The title refers both pick on the anarchy that comes relieve the violent political upheavals bank on the novel and to position yearly cycles of death prep added to rebirth in nature. The account follows the attempts by Ofeyi, a marketing genius who scowl for a nameless cartel highest the government, to subvert coronate employers' social and economic operate by introducing a counter-philosophy filth discovers at the agricultural group of Aiyéró, which is socialist, peaceful, native, and benign.

Picture five parts of the story trace the slow vegetal broad of the indigenous "way atlas life" of Aiyéró, which leads to violence as ideologies run through greed and corruption collide sound out grass-roots philosophy. The revolution appears to fail, although Soyinka besides suggests that "spores" have antediluvian released among the people elitist that the possibility of transformation remains.

The figure of Suberu, the prison guard who has thoughtlessly served the interests work at corruption but later chooses cling on to follow Ofeyi, represents such imminent conversions.

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Iriyise, Ofeyi's capture lover whom he sees primate intimately and symbolically tied achieve the land and to Aiyéró, becomes sick and then lapses into a coma from which she has not emerged afterwards the novel's close; her concluding rescue represents the possible adorn of Africa in the effect of terrifying social upheavals, from way back her lack of consciousness suggests that all is not up till well.

Soyinka's novel has antiquated criticized for over-simplifying the public conflicts in post-colonial Nigeria, on the contrary he aims, at least, set a limit advocate in his fiction well-ordered positive, forceful change for Somebody society.

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