A Comparative Study Of Drama Of Ngugi And Walcott From The Perspective Of Postcolonial Criticism

For Chinese readers and spectators,Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Derek Walcott may sound unfamiliar.However,they are important figures of the drama circle worldwide.The former is not only the winner of Lotus Prize for Literature in 1973,but also the nominee of the Nobel Prize in Literature for several times.Now,Ngugi is referred to as the most influential African writer since Chinua Achebe.In addition to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992,the latter has also won many other literary awards,such as International Writers Prize of England,the Obie Award for Best Foreign Play for Dream on Monkey Mountain(referred as "Dream"),the Smith Literature Award,and the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award of the United States,indicating the remarkable literary achievements of Walcott.Although living in different countries,both Ngugi and Walcott grow a strong anti-colonial consciousness for their black identity and childhood experience,and they incorporated this consciousness into literary creation.Ngugi believes that writing is always a path to connect himself with his birthplace.His works reflect the social reality of postcolonial Kenya,and express the playwright’s concerns about the destiny and prospect of the nation.Walcott is keen on literary themes like "national problems and colonial problems","self-identity" and "racism",hoping to show a way of self-identification for the nation and the black compatriots in the postcolonial era in the diversified multicultural background.So far,no scholar has compared the similarities and differences of the dramas of Ngugi and Walcott.In view of the creative features and artistic attainments of the two playwrights,a detailed analysis and discussion of their representative dramas I Will Marry When I Want(referred as "Marry")and Dream are carried out from the following three aspects of postcolonial criticism theory:cultural identity,the Otherness and hybridity.Through a thorough study of the similarities and differences of marginalized black people’s seeking and confirmation of identity,the thesis tries to reveal the dilemma of cultural identity that lies ahead of them,the consequent identity crisis,and a series of severe consequences caused by lack of culture in the way of searching for self value.At the same time,the "hybridity" of the east and western culture was interpreted in the main characters of the two works.The different cultural backgrounds in the two dramas contribute to the different situation of the characters.The blacks in Africa were invaded by the colonists during the imperialistic expansion of the European countries,they know about their traditional Gikuyu culture,and think deeply about whether to accept the white culture,which makes them in a better situation to defend their own culture.While the African-Caribbeans were brought to the new home together with,or after the white colonists occupy the Caribbean region.Therefore,they are lost in most of their lifetime and become "the other"unconsciously.The interweaving of white culture and traditional culture contributes to different priorities in Ngugi and Walcott’s orientation of cultural value,nevertheless,it gives birth to a similar consciousness of anti-colonialism and national salvation between the two writers.There is no doubt that the creation of the two outstanding dramatists is both an in-depth reflection on the identity of the black culture,and an art practice that objectively arouses people’s understanding of the diversity and confounding of culture,which directly promoted the development of post-colonial literary creation and literary criticism.