An Analysis Of The Death Theme In Wole Soyinka's Drama

Wole Soyinka (1934-) is one of the most famous playwrights in Africa. Since his earliest play, The Swamp Dweller, was published in 1958, Soyinka has produced twenty-two plays, most of which touch upon the theme of death. This essay is a systematic research into death theme of Soyinka's drama, thus examining the plays related with the theme of death. This essay tends to make a comprehensive analysis of Soyinka's drama centering the following four aspects:Soyinka's creative motivation of death theme, his thanatopsis, the formation of his death consciousness, and the profound significance of his death theme.This essay includes five chapters:chapter one is the introduction. It briefly introduces Soyinka's literary career and his status; then, summarizes the relevant research about Soyinka's works at home and abroad. Besides, the introduction also makes a simple description on the research organization, and points out the purpose and the significance of this study.Chapter Two explores Soyinka's creative motivation of death theme. This essay starts from Soyinka's death theme; it discusses the potential links between his own experiences and the theme of death. This thesis holds that death is such a significant theme in Soyinka's work. He draws on his own experiences in writing his drama, in the hope that he would tell the world in form of literary creation his own view upon death and his attitude towards death.Chapter Three mainly probes into two kinds of thanatopsis focusing on Soyinka's plays. Most of Soyinka's plays express many conceptions of primitive religion with Christianity, and typical conception of "the cycle of birth-to-death" in black African culture. Soyinka here expresses his pessimistic attitude, which is common to be found in contemporary literature, and also shows a cruel and ridiculous world to Africans and the people of the world.Chapter Four discusses the formation of Soyinka's death consciousness. The formation of his death consciousness experiences a long-term and dynamic process. In this process, his attitude towards death has undergone changes, which can be detected from his works.The final formation of his view of death has gone through a long time, and is constantly changed because of the writer's sensitive consciousness as well as the influence of war. This kind of emotional variety manifests in his plays change from initial fear of death to betrayal of death, then to inheritance of death, and finally to transcendence of death. Meanwhile, his death consciousness also drives the exploration of his death theme to constantly reach the deeper significance.In Chapter Five, the significance of Soyinka's death theme is probed conscientiously in this thesis. Soyinka's guilt follows a prototype called "scapegoat". Through Soyinka's scapegoat, he manifests an immortal spirit of living that African would wish for, and also points out that it is necessary for African people to perceive life in a completely new way; therefore, they can achieve eternal life in a real meaning.Based on the death theme as a contact point, with some specific analysis of these texts, this essay illustrates Soyinka's death theme starting from the methods of thematic study. This paper points out the origin of Soyinka's death theme has a close relationship with his personal experiences, and reflects his plays in the context of indigenous culture and African modern civilization. So, this thesis deeply examines the significance of Soyinka's death theme.