No description available.

Na moderna literatura africana, poucos autores se destacam tanto quanto o dramaturgo, poeta, ensaísta, memorialista e ficcionista nigeriano, de origem iorubá, Wole Soyinka, internacionalmente célebre e ganhador do Prêmio Nobel de Literatura em 1986. Soyinka é conhecido sobretudo como dramaturgo, e seu teatro se caracteriza pelo uso de uma variedade de gêneros literários, formas, linguagens extraliterárias, como a dança e a música, e outros recursos relacionados à cultura iorubá. A obra de Soyinka, escrita em inglês, incorpora tanto elementos das literaturas ocidentais quanto das africanas, e seu inglês é marcado pela constante visitação da oralidade iorubá em provérbios, metáforas e fragmentos de poemas tradicionais assim como sua dramaturgia incorpora elementos do teatro tradicional de seu povo. Acima de tudo, seus enredos, que incluem temas atuais como corrupção, lutas por poder e conflitos entre o indivíduo e seu grupo, estão alicerçados na visão de mundo e cosmogonia iorubá, contendo ainda diversas referências mitológicas e rituais. Em outras palavras, Wole Soyinka se caracteriza, antes de tudo, como um escritor iorubá, cuja obra, cosmopolita em seus temas e conflitos, encontra suas raízes e enquadramento filosófico na visão de mundo de seu povo. É nessa forte presença de elementos iorubás que se encontra um dos maiores interesses das obras de Wole Soyinka para o Brasil. Sabemos que, nos últimos tempos, está havendo uma considerável valorização de elementos de origem africana presentes na cultura nacional, dentre eles, os encontrados nas religiões de matriz africana, que se mostram verdadeiros repositórios de mitos e símbolos de grande riqueza semântica. Tais mitos e símbolos presentes nessas religiões são majoritariamente de origem iorubá. Ler a obra de Soyinka no Brasil, portanto, é buscar uma nova forma de se relacionar com esses elementos e de valorizá-los em sua dimensão literária. Entre as peças de Wole Soyinka, a mais conhecida é provavelmente Death and the King’s Horseman, publicada em 1975 e com diversas realizações teatrais na Nigéria, Estados Unidos e Reino Unido. Baseada em uma situação real na Nigéria colonial, em que um costume do povo iorubá entrou em conflito com a ordem britânica, tal peça é aquela em que visão de mundo e mitologia iorubá estão mais bem articuladas com uma linguagem rica em gêneros e fragmentos da literatura oral iorubá, sendo particularmente proveitosa para uma aproximação cultural. Esta tese oferece uma análise da peça baseada em noções da cultura, da mitologia e da visão de mundo iorubá e nas teorias estéticas e metafísicas do próprio Wole Soyinka. Destacam-se nesta análise os aspectos simbólicos, míticos e metafísicos, assim como os estéticos. Essa análise é precedida de um estudo sobre dimensões da cultura iorubá importantes para o entendimento da peça, tais como história, religião, mitologia, filosofia e artes. Em seguida, as teorias estéticas de Wole Soyinka são estudadas sobre o pano de fundo das discussões literárias vigentes na África no período em que Soyinka engendrava tais teorias. É a partir desses elementos que a peça é analisada. Acima de tudo, esta tese oferece uma tradução de Death and the King’s Horseman que busca valorizar seu conteúdo lírico, suas várias linguagens e suas perspectivas filosóficas, com base nos estudos que foram feitos nos capítulos precedentes, concluindo a tese com observações sobre o processo de tradução. / In modern African literature, few authors stand out as much as the Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, memorialist, and novelist, of Yoruba origin, Wole Soyinka, internationally acknowledged as the winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. Soyinka is known above all as a playwright, and his theatre is characterized by the use of a variety of literary genres, forms, extra-literary languages, such as dance and music, and other resources related to Yoruba culture. Soyinka’s work, written in English, includes elements from both Western and African literatures, and his English is marked by the constant presence of Yoruba orality in proverbs, metaphors and fragments of traditional poems as much as his dramaturgy embodies elements of the traditional theatre of his people. Above all, his plots, in such current themes as corruption, struggle for power and conflicts between individual and the community, are stippled on Yoruba worldview and cosmogony, containing as well many mythological and ritual references. In other words, Wole Soyinka characterizes himself, above all, as a Yoruba writer, whose work finds its roots and philosophical framework in the worldview of his people. It is in the strong presence of Yoruba elements in virtually all the ambits that we find one of the greatest interests of Soyinka’s works for Brazil. It is well-known that, in later years, there has been an increasing valuation and interest for elements of African origin in national culture, including those found in African-Brazilian religions, which are actually pools of myths and symbols of great semantic wealth. These myths and symbols found in those religions are, in their majority, of Yoruba origin. Reading Soyinka’s works in Brazil, therefore, is a way of relating to these elements and valuing them in their literary dimension. Among Soyinka’s works, the best-known is probably Death and the King’s Horseman, published in 1975 and with many productions in Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom. Based on an actual event that took place in colonial Nigeria, in which a Yoruba native habit conflicted with the British rule, this play is the one in which Yoruba mythology and worldview are best articulated with language that is rich in genres and fragments of Yoruba oral literature, being particularly fruitful for a cultural encounter. This dissertation offers an analysis of the play base on notions of Yoruba culture, mythology, and worldview and on Soyinka’s own aesthetic and metaphysical theories. This analysis highlights the symbolical, mythical and metaphysical, as well as aesthetic aspects. It is preceded by a study on important dimensions of Yoruba culture for the understanding of the play, such as history, religion, mythology, philosophy and arts. After that, Wole Soyinka’s aesthetic theories are studied against the background of the current literary discussions in Africa at the time. It is from these elements that the play is studied. Above all, this dissertation offers a translation of Death and the King’s Horseman that values its lyrical content, its many artistic languages and its philosophical perspectives based on the studies conducted in previous chapters and concluding with observations about the translation process.

Zugl.: Mannheim, Univ., Diss., 2005

This dissertation is mainly on Wole Soyinka as a dramatist. It aims to show that Soyinka, far from being an irrelevant artist as some of his fiercest critics have alleged, is a deeply committed writer whose works are characterised by a strong sense of concern with basic human values of right and wrong, good and evil. Furthermore, the dissertation shows that although Soyinka is not an admirer of Marxist aesthetics, he is certainly not in the art-for-art's-sake camp either, I because he is fully aware of the utilitarian value of literature. Soyinka's works are much influenced by his social and historical background, and the dissertation shows that Soyinka's socio-political awareness pervades all these works, although it will be seen that in the later plays there is a sharpened political awareness. Although largely concerned with his own country's issues, Soyinka also emerges as a keen observer of humanity universally / English Studies / M.A. (English)

本論文研究渥雷‧索因卡《死亡與國王的侍衛長》一劇，以及本劇對約魯巴（Yoruba）人孤注一擲抵制西化卻徒勞無功的境遇所做的關注。本劇改編真實歷史，重演一九四五年在奈及利亞奧約（Oyo）城發生的動亂。當時應舉行侍衛長（Horseman）自殺儀式，然而英國殖民者以武力中斷。本劇一方面解釋這個儀式在約魯巴社會的重要性，另一方面揭露侍衛長心不甘情不願了結生命，並斷言活人獻祭這類殘忍的傳統必然要革除，特別是在因英國殖民而致的動盪時刻。 / 論文分為四個章節，依據米哈依爾‧巴赫汀（Mikhail Bakhtin）的時空型（chronotope）理論，探究《死亡與國王的侍衛長》其社會歷史背景與戲劇表演手法。第一章介紹作者和劇本，並回顧評論，以及說明接下來討論的議題和理論架構。第二章分析文本與現實世界相互輝映的關係。艾瑞克‧霍布斯邦（Eric Hobsbawm）在〈發明傳統〉（"Inventing Traditions"）的見解用以闡明傳統是因時制宜的產物。比爾‧阿希克洛夫特（Bill Ashcroft）等三人提出的後殖民典型，有助於瞭解約魯巴人為了阻擋外來影響竭力奮戰，儘管殖民政府的干預相當強勢。第三章詮釋劇中人物的性格特徵，以弗朗茲‧法農（Frantz Fanon）告誡不可畫地自限的觀點為鑑。無法順應社會變異因此冥頑不靈的人，失去了看世界的洞察力。而那些猶豫不決者，為了遵從老一套的價值觀，受煎熬得筋疲力盡。第四章總結本文，認為本劇主張靈活性和果斷力以進行改變。 / This thesis studies Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman and its concerns for the Yoruba people's desperate but futile resistance to Westernization. Adapted from a real historical event, this play reenacts the disturbance in the Oyo city of Nigeria in 1945, when the ritual of the Horseman's suicide was interrupted by the British colonial force. While the play explains the importance of the ritual in the Yoruba society, it reveals the Horseman's reluctance to end his life and asserts that cruel tradition like human immolation must be reformed especially at the fluctuating moment caused by the British colonization. / Consisting of four chapters, this thesis relies on Mikhail Bakhtin's chronotope to explore the socio-historical context and theatrical representation of Death and the King's Horseman. Chapter one introduces the dramatist and the play, reviews critical opinions, and illustrates the purpose and theoretical framework of the following discussion. Chapter Two, which analyzes the interrelationship between textual and actual worlds, adopts Eric Hobsbawm's "Inventing Traditions" to clarify tradition as produced according to specific circumstances. The postcolonial models proposed by Ashcroft et al helps understand the Yoruba people's struggle for no foreign impact despite powerful intervention by the colonial government. Chapter Three interprets the roles' characterization with the aid of Frantz Fanon's warning of self-confinement. Unable to adjust to social variances, the obstinate people blind their vision of the world, while those procrastinating become dead exhausted by difficult conformity to old values. Chapter Four concludes that this play argues for resilience and resolution to make difference.

This dissertation is mainly on Wole Soyinka as a dramatist. It aims to show that Soyinka, far from being an irrelevant artist as some of his fiercest critics have alleged, is a deeply committed writer whose works are characterised by a strong sense of concern with basic human values of right and wrong, good and evil. Furthermore, the dissertation shows that although Soyinka is not an admirer of Marxist aesthetics, he is certainly not in the art-for-art's-sake camp either, I because he is fully aware of the utilitarian value of literature. Soyinka's works are much influenced by his social and historical background, and the dissertation shows that Soyinka's socio-political awareness pervades all these works, although it will be seen that in the later plays there is a sharpened political awareness. Although largely concerned with his own country's issues, Soyinka also emerges as a keen observer of humanity universally / English Studies / M.A. (English)