Collected Plays 2 - Softcover

Wole Soyinka

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192811649 ISBN 13: 9780192811646

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1975

Synopsis

'"The Lion and the Jewel" alone is enough to establish Nigeria as the most fertile new source of English-speaking drama since Synge's discovery of the Western Isles.' - "The Times". The ironic development and consequences of 'progress' may be traced through both the themes and the tone of the works included in this second volume of Wole Soyinka's plays. "The Lion and the Jewel" shows an ineffectual assault on past tradition soundly defeated. In "Kongi's Harvest", however, the pretensions of Kongi's regime are also fatal. The denouement points the way forward. "The Two Brother Jero" plays pursue that way, the comic 'propheteering' of the earlier play giving way to the sardonic reality of "Jero's Metamorphosis". "Madmen and Specialists", Soyinka's most pessimistic play, concerns the physical, mental, and moral destruction of modern civil war.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'One of the finest poetic playwrights who have ever written in English' - Martin Esslin'a writer of genius' - Irish Times. This second volume of Wole Soyinka's plays traces the ironic development and consequences of 'progress'.

About the Author:

Wole Soyinka is a celebrated Nigerian writer and winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. As well as plays he has written two novels, two volumes of poetry, and The Man Died, notes of his prison experience. His other plays include The Lion and the Jewel, Kongi's Harvest, The Trails of
Brother Jero, Jero's Metamorphosis, and Madmen and Specialists. He has a new book, The Open Sore of a Continent, published in in June 1996.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 0192811649
• ISBN 13: 9780192811646
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282