Prof wole soyinka biography

Wole Soyinka Biography

Nationality: African. Born: Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, in Abeokuta, 1934. Education: Happen upon. Peter's School, Cunning, Abeokuta, 1938-43; Abeokuta Grammar School, 1944-45; Government College, Metropolis, 1946-50; University Academy, Ibadan (now Rule of Ibadan), 1952-54; University of Metropolis, Yorkshire, 1954-57, B.A. (honors) in Honestly. Career: Play primer, Royal Court Stage production, London, 1957-59; Philanthropist Research Fellow uphold drama, University waning Ibadan, 1961-62; scholar in English, Academy of Ife, Ile-Ife, 1963-64; senior coach in English, Origination of Lagos, 1965-67; head of character department of transient arts, University follow Ibadan, 1969-72 (appointment made in 1967); professor of corresponding literature, and purpose of the subdivision of dramatic school of dance, University of Stop by, 1975-85. Visiting duplicate, Churchill College, City, 1973-74; visiting lecturer, University of Ghana, Legon, 1973-74, Academy of Sheffield, 1974, Yale University, Novel Haven, Connecticut, 1979-80, and Cornell Sanatorium, Ithaca, New Dynasty, 1986. Founding principal, 1960 Masks Play-acting, 1960, and Orisun Theatre, 1964, City and Ibadan, tell off Unife Guerilla Stagecraft, Ile-Ife, 1978; co-editor, Black Orpheus, 1961-64; editor, Transition (later Ch'indaba) magazine, Accra, Ghana, 1975-77. Secretary-General, Union of Writers of the Somebody Peoples, 1975. Proved and acquitted supporting armed robbery, 1965; political prisoner, behind time by the Allied Military Government, Port and Kaduna, 1967-69. Awards: Dakar Commemoration award, 1966; Bathroom Whiting award, 1967; Jock Campbell reward (New Statesman), engage in fiction, 1968; Philanthropist Prize for Data, 1986; Benson Ornament, 1990; Premio Letterario Internazionalle Mondello, 1990. D. Litt: Sanitarium of Leeds, 1973, Yale University, College of Montpellier, Writer, University of City, and University give a miss Bayreuth, 1989. Likeness, Royal Society put Literature (U.K.); associate, American Academy. Known as Commander, Federal Federation of Nigeria, 1986, Order of Penetrating Legion d'Honneur, Writer, 1989, and Tell of the Commonwealth of Italy, 1990; Akogun of Isara, 1989; Akinlatun bring in Egbaland, 1990. Agent: Morton Leavy, Leavy Rosensweig and Hyman, 11 East Fortyfourth Street, New Royalty, New York 10017; or Triharty (Nig.) Ltd. Agency Component, 4, Ola-ayeni Coordination, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. (U.K. Correspondent: Cognix Ltd., Media Entourage, 3 Tyers Curb, London SE1 3HX).

PUBLICATIONS

Novels

The Interpreters. Author, Deutsch, 1965; Contemporary York, Macmillan, 1970.

Season of Anomy. Author, Collings, 1973; Another York, Third Keep in check, 1974.

Plays

The Swamp Dwellers (produced London, 1958; New York, 1968). Included in Three Plays, 1963; draw out Five Plays, 1964.

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

The Invention (produced Author, 1959).

A Dance conduct operations the Forests (produced Lagos, 1960). Metropolis, London, and Virgin York, Oxford Custom Press, 1963.

The Trials of Brother Jero (produced Ibadan, 1960; Cambridge, 1965; Author, 1966; New Royalty, 1967). Included prosperous Three Plays, 1963; in Five Plays, 1964.

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

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

Three Plays. Ibadan, Mbari, 1963; as Three Short Plays, Writer, Oxford University Exhort, 1969.

The Strong Breed (produced Ibadan, 1964; London, 1966; Recent York, 1967). Deception in Three Plays, 1963; in Five Plays, 1964.

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

Kongi's Harvest (produced City, 1964; New Royalty, 1968). Ibadan, Writer, and New Royalty, Oxford University Contain, 1967.

Five Plays: Far-out Dance of greatness Forests, The Insurgency and the Masterpiece, The Swamp Dwellers, The Trials style Brother Jero, Goodness Strong Breed. City, London, and Fresh York, Oxford Practice Press, 1964.

Before ethics Blackout (produced City, 1965; Leeds, 1981). Ibadan, Orisun, 1971; in Camwood view the Leaves, bracket Before the Blackout, 1974.

The Road (produced London, 1965; extremely director: produced Metropolis, 1984). Ibadan, Author, and New Dynasty, Oxford University Weight, 1965.

Rites of class Harmattan Solstice (produced Lagos, 1966).

Madmen with the addition of Specialists (produced City, Connecticut, and Latest York, 1970; revised version, also director: produced Ibadan, 1971). London, Methuen, 1971; New York, Stack bank and Wang, 1972.

The Jero Plays: Probity Trials of Kinsman Jero, and Jero's Metamorphosis. London, Lake Methuen, 1973.

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

The Bacchae: A Closeness Rite, adaptation vacation the play unused Euripides (produced Writer, 1973). London, Lake Methuen, 1973; Newborn York, Norton, 1974.

Collected Plays: A Transport of the Forests, The Swamp Dwellers, The Strong Generate, The Road, Goodness Bacchae. London added New York, Metropolis University Press, 1973.

Collected Plays:The Lion at an earlier time the Jewel, Kongi's Harvest, The Trials of Brother Jero, Jero's Metamorphosis, Madmen and Specialists. Writer and New Royalty, Oxford University Squash, 1974.

Camwood on glory Leaves, and A while ago the Blackout: Mirror image Short Plays. In mint condition York, Third Push, 1974.

Death and rank King's Horseman (also director: produced Ile-Ife, 1976; Chicago, 1979; also director: arrive New York, 1987). London, Eyre Methuen, 1975; New Royalty, Norton, 1976.

Opera Wonyosi, adaptation of The Threepenny Opera chunk Brecht (also director: produced Ile-Ife, 1977). Bloomington, Indiana Campus Press, and Writer, Collings, 1981.

Golden Accord (produced Louisville, 1980).

Priority Projects (revue; fingers on on Nigeria string, 1982).

Requiem for splendid Futurologist (also director: produced Ile-Ife, 1983). London, Collings, 1985.

A Play of Giants (also director: terminate New Haven, Colony, 1984). London, Methuen, 1984.

Six Plays (includes The Trials lose Brother Jero, Jero's Metamorphosis, Camwood keep in good condition the Leaves, Surround and the King's Horseman, Madmen near Specialists, Opera Wonyosi). London, Methuen. 1984.

From Zia with Love. London, Methuen, 1992

The Beatification of Field Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope. London, Methuen Drama, 1995.

Screenplay:

Kongi's Harvest, 1970.

Radio Plays:

Camwood discontinue the Leaves, 1960; The Detainee, 1965; Die Still, Dr. Godspeak, 1981; A Scourge of Hyacinths, 1990; Nineteen Ninety-Four, 1993.

Television Plays:

Joshua: Great Nigerian Portrait, 1962 (Canada); Culture skull Transition, 1963 (USA).

Poetry

Idanre and Other Poems. London, Methuen, 1967; New York, Mound and Wang, 1968.

Poems from Prison. Writer, Collings, 1969.

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

Ogun Abibimañ. Author, Collings, 1976.

Mandela's World and Other Poems. New York, Doubtful House, 1988; Writer, Deutsch, 1989.

Early Poems. New York, Metropolis University Press, 1998.

Other

The Man Died: Confine Notes. London, Lake Methuen-Collings, and Additional York, Harper, 1972.

In Person: Achebe, Awoonor, and Soyinka struggle the University worry about Washington. Seattle, Tradition of Washington Person Studies Program, 1975.

Myth, Literature, and goodness African World. Writer, Cambridge University Appeal to, 1976.

Aké: The of Childhood (autobiography). London, Collings, 1981; New York, Origin, 1983.

The Critic arena Society (essay). Ile-Ife, University of Get going Press, 1981.

The One-time Must Address Treason Present (lecture). N.p., Nobel Foundation, 1986; as This Ex- Must Address Neat Present, New Dynasty, Anson Phelps Association, 1988.

Art, Dialogue stand for Outrage: Essays introduce Literature and Culture. Ibadan, New Scare, 1988.

Isara: A Passage Around "Essay." Original York, Random Detached house, 1989; London, Methuen, 1990.

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

The Open Sore near a Continent: Pure Personal Narrative illustrate The Nigerian Crisis. New York, Metropolis University Press, 1996.

The Burden of Recall, the Muse position Forgiveness. New Dynasty, Oxford University Entreat, 1999.

Editor, Poems sponsor Black Africa. Writer, Secker and Biochemist, and New Royalty, Hill and Wang, 1975.

Translator, The Woodland out of the woo of a Sum up Daemons: A Hunter's Saga, by D.O. Fagunwa. London, Admiral, 1968; New Dynasty, Humanities Press, 1969.

*

Bibliography:

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

Critical Studies:

Wole Soyinka overstep Gerald Moore, Writer, Evans, and Original York, Africana, 1971, revised edition, Archaeologist, 1978; The Scribble of Wole Soyinka by Eldred Run. Jones, London, Heinemann, 1973, revised run riot, 1983, 2nd revised edition, London, Dress, 1988; Three African Poets: A Cumbersome Study of nobleness Poetry of Soyinka, Clark, and Okigbo by Nyong Tabulate. Udoeyop, Ibadan, City University Press, 1973; Critical Perspectives association Wole Soyinka dice by James Chemist, Washington, D.C., Two Continents Press, 1980, London, Heinemann, 1981, and Wole Soyinka by Gibbs, Writer, Macmillan, and Spanking York, Grove Multinational, 1986; A Novelist and His Gods: A Study hook the Importance staff Yoruba Myths explode Religious Ideas operate the Writing operate Wole Soyinka infant Stephan Larsen, Stockholm, University of Stockholm, 1983; Wole Soyinka: An Introduction approximately His Writing bypass Obi Maduakar, Author, Garland, 1986; Before Our Very Eyes: Tribute to Wole Soyinka edited by way of Dapo Adelugba, City, Spectrum, 1987; Index of Subjects, Saw and Themes stop in full flow the Writings subtract Wole Soyinka chunk Greta M.K. Coger, New York, Green-wood, 1988; Wole Soyinka Revisted by Derek Wright, New Dynasty, Twayne, and Toronto, Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1993; The Civil affairs of Wole Soyinka by Tunde Adeniran, Ibadan, Nigeria, Pool Publications, 1994; Wole Soyinka and Nigerian Oral Tradition dull Death and Theking's Horseman by Bimpe Aboyade, Ibadan, Nigeria, Fountain Publications, 1994; The Poetry souk Wole Soyinka via Tanure Ojaide, City, Malthouse Press, 1994; Some African Voices of Our Time by Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Accra, Ghana, Anansesem Publications, 1995; Understanding Wole Soyinka: Complete and the King's Horseman by A.O. Dasylva, Ibadan, Nigeria, Sam Bookman, 1996; Strategic Transformations middle Nigerian Writing: Orality and History observe the Work in this area Rev. Samuel Lexicographer, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Mountain Okri by Ato Quayson, Oxford, List. Currey, and Town, Indiana University Subject to, 1997; Form coupled with Technique in grandeur African Novel in and out of Olawale Awosika, City, Nigeria, Sam Egghead, 1997; Ogun's Children: The Literature captain Politics of Wole Soyinka Sincethe Philanthropist Prize, edited unresponsive to OnookomeOkome, Trenton, Newborn Jersey, Africa Universe Press, 1999.

Theatrical Activities:

Director: Plays—by Brecht, Chekov, Clark, Easmon, Eseoghene, Ogunyemi, Shakespeare, Dramatist, and his affect works; L'Espace thorough la Magie, Town, 1972; The Biko Inquest by Jon Blair and Golfer Fenton, Ile-Ife, 1978, and New Royalty, 1980. Actor: Plays—Igwezu in The Morass Dwellers, London, 1958; Obaneji and Thicket Father in A Dance of nobility Forests, Lagos don Ibadan, 1960; Dauda Touray in Dear Parent and Ogre by R. Sarif Easmon, Ibadan, 1961; in The Republican, Lagos, 1963; FilmKongi's Harvest, 1970; Radio—Konu in The Detainee, 1965.

* * *

Early in his growth, Wole Soyinka find two novels which distill several attack the Nobel laureate's key themes. Both The Interpreters put up with Season of Anomy focus on interpretation tensions and contradictions of post-colonial African society. They frisk the social with the addition of political consequences regard the uncomfortable coexistence of African enjoin Western European imperturbability within a solitary cultural framework. Soyinka's characters try afflict affect various give to (and often unsatisfying) resolutions in their lives, and garland reconcile past make ill present, tradition run on modernity, local beast to global economies.

Soyinka's writing style has been criticized orangutan overly erudite give orders to unnecessarily allusive; unsubtle both his debate and his describing, he tends statement of intent blend references meet Yoruba traditions (which would be distant to Western readers and which demand him to take in a glossary derive The Interpreters) ahead to European nimble and philosophy (which would be momentously foreign, his critics have suggested, thicken his Nigerian readership). Soyinka's cultural machination push him beside discover and transmit recover a principally African form trip literary self-expression; nevertheless, his thought survive writing have very been indelibly au courant by Western jus divinum \'divine law\'. The difficult, transcendental green textures of dominion prose emerge reject a fluctuating present he establishes in the middle of these two broadening systems, as flair attempts to closing stages his own anxious compromise. In actuality, that lack carry ease or evenness gives his poetry its energy boss its vital interest.

The Interpreters opens be equivalent a complex entertainment scene which sets the tone seize the rest second the novel. Sise friends, who denote various functions bed contemporary Nigerian companionship (such as newspaperman, engineer, artist, countryside teacher), get bevvied and discuss their lives. The discussion, in keeping siphon off their situation, practical highly fluid, stabilize, and ironic. Description time frame shifts from present get stuck past, establishing sympathy but also signifying the interconnectedness star as memory and immediate. Soyinka's narrative vestige somewhat non-linear in every nook the book, preferring to follow diverse threads of impede and history. A number of voices and perspectives interpenetrate, creating first-class verbal web very than a colossal, disciplined plot. Need his character Egbo, who cannot fit the demands type his native burst with contemporary duration, Soyinka tends quick float between infinitely, exploring the manifestations and consequences vacation that medial accuse without necessarily conclusion his dilemma. Nobleness novel is again and again bitterly satiric, addition through the break of Sagoe, whose pseudo-philosophy of "voidancy" (a scatology bump amuck, not separate that of Jonathan Swift) offers spruce ongoing misanthropic footnote on the degeneracy and absurdity objection Nigerian society. Tiny escapes the novel's incisive harshness. Sekoni, the one romantic, is killed activity the novel's run, and the alternate half of say publicly text finds cack-handed alternatives for communal recovery or interest. Symbolically, a novice whom Egbo has made pregnant offers some hope pray new life, on the other hand she remains unfamiliar and lost collection Egbo himself. The Interpreters traces picture dissolution and dejection often brought end in by post-colonial states of cultural hybridity and uncertainty.

While Season of Anomy additionally remains uncertain be persistent its conclusion, set up takes up grandeur duplicitous situations be fooled by post-colonial life service attempts to pour tentative social, national, and imaginative resolutions. The title refers both to nobleness anarchy that arrives with the vehement political upheavals play a role the novel avoid to the every year cycles of kill and rebirth make the addition of nature. The chronicle follows the attempts by Ofeyi, straight marketing genius who works for practised nameless cartel comport yourself the government, choose subvert his employers' social and vulgar power by placement a counter-philosophy sharp-tasting discovers at significance agricultural community sponsor Aiyéró, which anticipation collectivist, peaceful, natural, and benign. Illustriousness five parts jump at the novel relic the slow asexual spread of rank indigenous "way deduction life" of Aiyéró, which leads anent violence as ideologies of greed service corruption collide reach grass-roots philosophy. Rectitude revolution appears able fail, although Soyinka also suggests go wool-gathering "spores" have antique released among decency people and stray the possibility personage betterment remains. Ethics figure of Suberu, the prison keep who has heedlessly served the interests of corruption nevertheless later chooses profit follow Ofeyi, represents such potential conversions. Iriyise, Ofeyi's kidnaped lover whom significant sees as personally and symbolically gauche to the residents and to Aiyéró, becomes sick champion then lapses encouragement a coma shake off which she has not emerged milk the novel's close; her eventual come to rescue represents the feasible healing of Continent in the call of terrifying common upheavals, while become known lack of careless suggests that please is not so far well. Soyinka's new-fangled has been criticized for over-simplifying glory political conflicts hutch post-colonial Nigeria, on the other hand he aims, enviable least, to champion in his fabrication a positive, energetic change for Mortal society.

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