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Wole Soyinka
Soyinka, Wole
The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
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1996
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© The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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Soyinka, Wole [ Akinwande Oluwole] (1934– ), Nigerian writer, the first to become known for his dramatic works outside his own country. Born at Abeokuta in Western Nigeria, he attended University College, Ibadan, before taking a degree in English at Leeds University, where he wrote several plays including
The Lion and the Jewel (1957;
Royal Court, 1966), which satirically contrasts old and new Nigeria. In 1958 he joined a writers' group conducted by George
Devine and William
Gaskill at the Royal Court, where his one-act play
The Invention (1959) was given a Sunday night performance. He returned to the University of Ibadan in 1960 as a research fellow in drama and wrote
The Dance of the Forests for the Nigerian independence celebrations. He then produced two satirical revues,
The Republican (1964) and
Before the Blackout (1965), and also in 1965 had a play,
The Road, produced in London. This was followed by
Kongi's Harvest (1966), about a tyrannical modern African state, produced at the Dakar World Festival of Negro Arts and, in 1968, in New York. Active in politics, he was arrested in 1965 and again in 1967, when his attempts to negotiate a truce in the Biafran War led to two years in jail. He returned to the School of Drama at Ibadan of which he had been appointed Director in 1967, but resigned in 1972 after disturbances on the campus. His next play,
Madmen and Specialists (NY, 1970), expressed his horror of war and destruction. In 1973 the
National Theatre in London commissioned his adaptation of
Euripides' Bacchae, and he went home in 1975 to occupy the Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Ifé.
Death and the King's Horseman, written in England in 1975 and staged in Ifé in 1976 (NY, 1987), deals with an incident in Yoruba history in 1946, when the British opposed the ritual suicide of the King's Horseman after his King's death. Among his later works are
Opera Wonyosi (1977), based on
Gay's The Beggar's Opera and
Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, and
A Play of Giants (1984), based on
Genet's The Balcony, both of which again attack modern African tyrants. Essentially a political satirist, Soyinka fully deserves his international reputation, being a sophisticated craftsman with a fine command of the English language and an innovative approach to stage-craft. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
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Wole Soyinka And Keyamo: Matters Arising.
News Wire article from: Africa News Service; 2/1/2002; 700+ words
; ...the institution called Professor Wole Soyinka. Keyamo s haughty outbursts were...coaching" by Keyamo. Professor Wole Soyinka during a visit to Governor Tinubu...money and politics succumb easily. Wole Soyinka and other achieving members of...
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Celebrating Wole Soyinka at 69.
News Wire article from: Africa News Service; 8/4/2003; 700+ words
; ...COMTEX) LAST month, Professor Wole Soyinka, dramatist, poet, novelist...he called, "Reading Notes On Wole Soyinka's The Interpreters," but I...which he discussed the works of Wole Soyinka and T. M. Aluko, identifying...
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Biodun Jeyifo, Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, and Postcolonialism.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Africa; 9/22/2004; ; 700+ words
; BIODUN JEYIFO, Wole Soyinka: politics, poetics, and postcolonialism...some of the accusations levelled by Wole Soyinka against Jeyifo and his Marxist peers...more than a 'single author' study, Wole Soyinka transforms its central subject into...
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Abacha Years - How Wole Soyinka Relocated to US [interview].
News Wire article from: Africa News Service; 11/3/2008; 700+ words
; ...Media via COMTEX) -- Professor Wole Soyinka - the Nobel Prize winner - flew...busy with in Germany with Kongi (Wole Soyinka) after the Lagos event when you...da man', your countryman, Wole Soyinka. He also became a member of the...
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Wole Soyinka: An Appraisal.
Magazine article from: World Literature Today; 3/22/1995; ; 700+ words
; ...in then crisis-ridden Lagos, Wole Soyinka: An Appraisal is more an effort...Osofisan and Osundare, who share Soyinka's Yoruba heritage, the tribute...more serious and eye-opening. Wole Soyinka: An Appraisal is a strong and...
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PAGE TURNERS: A CONVERSATION WITH WOLE SOYINKA; A voice for a nation: His life woven into Nigeria's struggle.(WORLD)(Interview)
Newspaper article from: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN); 5/25/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...literature, Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka lives a certain dichotomy. He...parents' generation who relied on Wole Soyinka to tell the closest thing to the...exile. "I have always admired Wole Soyinka," novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie...
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NOBEL LAUREATE LOOKS AT THEATER'S ROLE IN SOCIETY.(EVERYDAY MAGAZINE)(WOLE SOYINKA)
Newspaper article from: St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO); 10/23/2002; ; 700+ words
; ...Namulondo Of The Post-Dispatch * Wole Soyinka will speak at WU as part of Black...celebration. In Africa, the name Wole Soyinka conjures up an image of a great...Man Died: The Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka," his outlook to writing was...
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Conversations with Wole Soyinka.
Magazine article from: World Literature Today; 1/1/2002; ; 700+ words
; ...8 paper) CONVERSATIONS WITH WOLE SOYINKA is far more rewarding than I expected...individuals perhaps intimidated by Soyinka's imposing personality. In all...accessible. Conversations with Wole Soyinka doubtless helps us understand more...
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Profile: Nigerian author Wole Soyinka's new play, "King Baabu"
Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 8/14/2001; ; 700+ words
; ...0000 Profile: Nigerian author Wole Soyinka's new play, King Baabu Host...Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka is premiering his first play since...is not coincidental. Playwright Wole Soyinka fled Abacha's regime in the mid...
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A life shaped by a larger cause; Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka chronicles his adult life in the second half of his memoirs.(FEATURES)(BOOKS)(Book review)
Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor; 4/11/2006; 700+ words
; ...readers may know Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka best as a playwright, author of...is only too easy to understand Soyinka's closing line: "I am back...You Must Set Forth at Dawn By Wole Soyinka Random House 499 pp., $26...
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Wole Soyinka
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
Wole Soyinka The Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka (born 1935) was one of the few African writers to denounce...black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wole Soyinka was born July 13, 1934 in Abeokuta a village on the banks...
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Soyinka, Wole 1934–
Book article from: Contemporary Black Biography
Wole Soyinka 1934 – Author...Glance … In 1986 Wole Soyinka became the first black African...elders, saw to it that young Wole ’ s early years...steeped in Yoruba mythology. Soyinka has written an anecdotal...
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Soyinka, Wole
Book article from: Contemporary Novelists
SOYINKA, Wole Nationality: Nigerian. Born: Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, in Abeokuta, 13 July 1934. Education: St. Peter's School, Ake, Abeokuta, 1938-43; Abeokuta Grammar School, 1944-45; Government College, Ibadan, 1946-50...
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Kongi's Harvest
Dictionary entry from: International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers
...and Lennart Berns; screenplay: Wole Soyinka, from his own play; assistant...and Fadeke Akinwunmi. Cast: Wole Soyinka ( Kongi ); Rashidi Onikoyi ( Oba...Dende ). Publications Books: Soyinka, Wole, Kongi's Harvest , London...
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Okri, Ben
Book article from: Contemporary Novelists
...in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Ben Okri by Ato Quayson, Oxford, J. Currey and...degradation is as unflinching and as compassionate as that of Wole Soyinka. Omovo is actually described at one point, reading...
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