Ritual Writing And Cultural Memory Reconstruction In Soyinka’s Drama

Wole Soyinka(1934—),a Nigerian playwright,was the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.He has made great contributions to African literature through his decades of continuous writing.He is a writer,literary critic,screenwriter,director and other multiple literary and cultural identities.As the second generation of intellectuals,Africa cable for card accepted two cultures on the indelible impact on his literary creation,which is especially typical ritual play,this article mainly from the sight of the ritual,in line of three different periods of ritual drama the Dance of the Forests,Strong Breed,Death and the King’s Horseman as the research object,Based on the historical context of the drama texts in different periods,this paper analyzes the ritual witing in these three ritual plays by applying the theories of ritual,cultural memory and identity,and then explores the dynamic relationship among ritual,memory and identity,thus elaborating the writing features and ethical expression of Soyinka’s ritual plays.This paper is divided into five parts.The introduction part first gives a brief introduction to Soyinka and his works,then explains the reason for the topic selection and writing of this paper as well as the research status of Soyinka’s plays at home and abroad,and finally discusses the significance of the topic selection,research methods and innovations of this paper.First chapter began with the early drama the Dance of the Forests as the research object,the Victor Turner horizon,"rites of passage" theory,in accordance with the ceremony of "separation-marge-aggregation" three stages architecture full text,analyze its ritual intertextuality relations between the writing and memory:individual and collective memory after lost,looking for successful integration into cultural memory,the call of cultural memory of the hero Demoke and others identity construction has played a positive role.In this play,Soyinka focuses on the influence of ritual as a medium of cultural memory on the construction of identity.The second chapter takes the middle work Strong Breed as the research object,analyzes the connection between the double-crossed ritual writing in this play and the failure of identity construction,and then reflects on the cultural memory.Ritual writing in the play presents the feature of the cross of two lines,one is virtual and the other is real.The clues of the two rituals are intersected in the text,but the dialogue cannot be realized all the time.The failure of the identity construction of Eman implies the failure of the integration of individual memory and collective memory,and thus reflects on the cultural memory.The third chapter takes the late work Death and the King’s Horseman as the research object,and uses the post-colonial theory to analyze the role of ritual as an anti-colonial writing method in the reconstruction of cultural memory and the reconstruction of identity.The crisis of reincarnation ceremony is the symbol of the crisis of identity of Elesin and the tribe,while the defense of ritual means the maintenance of cultural memory,which is finally reconstructed under the sacrifice of the cultural amphibious man Olunde,and the reconstructed cultural memory finally points to the reconstruction of identity.Chapter iv by the analysis of the three rituals show general cable for card of the whole ceremony,analysis for card ceremony play writing features,mainly divides into the myth of role in shaping and stereo multi-line type locking structure,then analysis for card ceremony drama ethical appeal,its core is to is:as a kind of nostalgic mechanism,relieve anxiety brought by the history culture rupture and tear;Ritual writing is regarded as a means of reshaping identity and condensing national community.The conclusion points out the value of Soyinka’s ritual play creation:First,the innovation of western drama art;The second is to construct a new model of African self-speaking discourse;The third is to renew the charm with ritual,to question and reflect on the modernity that rationality is supreme in the west.