Tracking the Road of Subalternity in Wole Soyinka's Play “the Road”.
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- Category: English: Plays
- Date Submitted: 03/31/2011 10:35 AM
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Tracking the road of Subalternity in Wole Soyinka’s play “The Road”.
“After all, new uniform deserves new body…”
(The Road)
The Road deals with the myriad issues bedeviling emerging modern Africa. Wole Soyinka envision a ‘new Africa’—that would escape its colonial past by grafting the technical advancement of the present on its own ancient tradition. He envisaged a new future that would open its way to ‘self-retrieval’, Cultural recollection and cultural security. So he reformulated native myths, to accommodate contemporary reality. He draws his archetypal pattern from the tensed social and political structure of his country or community. Such archetypes vibrate in such a way that a sympathetic resonance is set up within the reader. His works explore the connection and conflict between the western and Yorubian framework. He also seeks to preserve and reintegrate the connection between ancient cosmic ritual and modern theatre. The colonizers demeaned the native as a ‘savage’, his land called ‘a dark continent’, his heart, ‘heart of darkness’, his religion ‘barbarous’ and himself a ‘cannibal’. They are referred as the Subalterns which mean the people of inferior ranks without class consciousness; that is that group in society who are subject to the hegemony of ruling class. In case of Africa, these issues tightens and tense themselves in a much crucial way. What Crow and Banfield term ‘the disruption of African history’ by the European imperialist is a crucial cause of current chaos. My endeavour in this paper is to track the road of subalternity in Soyinka’s paly ‘The Road’. And for this, I have attempted to critically analyze the play under the notions—issue, structure, character, language and non-verbal techniques. I have tried to deal Soyinka’s relation to postcoloniality in order to fulfill the demand of my paper. I have not dared to delve in the details as The Road is still regarded as a rather obscure play and has already baffled many a...
“After all, new uniform deserves new body…”
(The Road)
The Road deals with the myriad issues bedeviling emerging modern Africa. Wole Soyinka envision a ‘new Africa’—that would escape its colonial past by grafting the technical advancement of the present on its own ancient tradition. He envisaged a new future that would open its way to ‘self-retrieval’, Cultural recollection and cultural security. So he reformulated native myths, to accommodate contemporary reality. He draws his archetypal pattern from the tensed social and political structure of his country or community. Such archetypes vibrate in such a way that a sympathetic resonance is set up within the reader. His works explore the connection and conflict between the western and Yorubian framework. He also seeks to preserve and reintegrate the connection between ancient cosmic ritual and modern theatre. The colonizers demeaned the native as a ‘savage’, his land called ‘a dark continent’, his heart, ‘heart of darkness’, his religion ‘barbarous’ and himself a ‘cannibal’. They are referred as the Subalterns which mean the people of inferior ranks without class consciousness; that is that group in society who are subject to the hegemony of ruling class. In case of Africa, these issues tightens and tense themselves in a much crucial way. What Crow and Banfield term ‘the disruption of African history’ by the European imperialist is a crucial cause of current chaos. My endeavour in this paper is to track the road of subalternity in Soyinka’s paly ‘The Road’. And for this, I have attempted to critically analyze the play under the notions—issue, structure, character, language and non-verbal techniques. I have tried to deal Soyinka’s relation to postcoloniality in order to fulfill the demand of my paper. I have not dared to delve in the details as The Road is still regarded as a rather obscure play and has already baffled many a...