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Title: Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka ISBN: 0-393-32299-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.08 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Western Ignorance and Centrcity Imposing Itself On Africa
Comment: In this play Soyinka gives such roundness to his characters that it is hard for some to decipher their goodness or "badness" as characters. The play is a story of the western colonizers' failure to recognize African culture as substantial. The play deals with the Yoruba religion and a specific ritual that is thwarted by an ignorant colonizer who does so for reasons traced back to ethnocentricity and racism. The man who is deemed to kill himself is pitied by the westerners and this shows their hippocrisy. By demanding that suicide was immoral and could not be a spiritual endeavor they denied the status of one of the most important men to grace Western Civilization with their presence: Jesus Christ. Christ gave himself away the same way that the character in this play does and did so for spiritual reasons that transcended himself.
THe play gives great insight into African culture and builds with intensity to a hugely climatic ending that is rewarding for the reader to experience.
Rating: 4
Summary: Clash Between Two Cultures
Comment: Death and the King's Horseman is a play written by Wole Soyinka, whose main focus is on the difference between the Western culture as opposed to the African culture. In his play he demonstrates how the western culture feels superior to the African one by supposing that they can interfere in their customs. The westerners from the play, the Pilkings, invaded Nigeria where the tribe of Yoruba inhabits. Throughout the whole play, there was a constant struggle between the Pilkings and the people of the Yoruban tribe to stop a certain traditional ceremony practiced by the Yorubans. This consisted of the king's horseman commiting suicide one month after the king died. It was so customary and natural for this to occur, but for the westerners it was totally insane and inhumane. The end is very unpredictable and will keep you on the edge of your seat while reading this book. I highly recommend this book because it exhibits an abundant amount of insight on human nature and it also helps us attain a greater understanding of the African culture.
Rating: 5
Summary: One Great Writer
Comment: At a university seminar in the US recently, Prof. Soyinka was asked to respond to charges by certain critics that his writing wasn't 'African' enough. He responded, saying "The people who say these things, I refer to as neo-Tarzanists, people whose Africa is the Africa of Tarzan, swinging from tree to tree. That's not my Africa", he said, to a standing, thunderous ovation. It is difficult to imagine a writer in English today with a wider grasp of the language. Some of his work is unbelievable - metaphor, irony, the supernatural, interwoven with tragedy, lyricism, and language. Top-draw.
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Title: Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka ISBN: 0199110832 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Ake : The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka ISBN: 0679725407 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 October, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Things Fall Apart : A Novel by CHINUA ACHEBE ISBN: 0385474547 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson ISBN: 0679732497 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Metamorphosis by FRANZ KAFKA ISBN: 0553213695 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1972 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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