Godina izdanja: 1978
ISBN: 978-0-521-29394-4
Jezik: Engleski
Vrsta: Eseji i kritike
Autor: Strani

Title: Myth, Literature and the African World
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 1978
Binding: paperback
Condition: Very Good

How does the African world perceive itself as a cultural entity and how are others to understand it? In the five essays collected in this volume, Wole Soyinka, one of Africa’s most accomplished writers and perceptive critics, extends his long-standing engagement with a theme that has preoccupied him for years.
Professor Soyinka approaches this theme through imaginative works of literature and, inseparably, through history, ritual and myth – in particular Yoruba myth. Since the stage is conceived as a „ritual arena of confrontation”, many examples of the facets of the African „inner world” are drawn from plays by or about Africans, but Soyinka also analyses contemporary works of fiction and poetry. He addresses such controversial topics as the elitist aspects of the Negritude movement, the nature of ritual and its relation to drama, the conditions that produce great tragedy, the essential unity of experience and form in African as opposed to Western literature, and he offers illuminating insights into contemporary cultural figures.
„[Soyinka’s] intellectual integrity shines through the text, and the result is the best book on contemporary African literature available.” (New Society)
„Packed with provocative thought, and there is really no shortcut to understanding and judging it… But the key to understanding is certainly to be found in Professor Soyinka’s underlying argument: that African literature cannot be viewed as the work of ‘primitive’ writers evolving into ‘civilized’ ones…” (The Times Higher Education Supplement)
„…this new publication significantly advances, and somewhat reorients, a well-established trend – the artist-critic genre of African literary criticism.” (Lore and Language)
The cover illustration shows a neo-traditional sculpture of the Nimba mask from the Baga of Guinea, signifying creative force. The cover design is by Ken Farnhill. Also issued in hard covers. Printed in Great Britain by George Over Limited. Cambridge University Press.

Contents
Preface vii
Morality and Aesthetics in the Ritual Archetype; Drama and the African World-View 37
Ideology and the Social Vision (1): The Religious Factor 61
Ideology and the Social Vision (2): The Secular Ideal 97
Appendix: The Fourth Stage 140
Index 161

Wole Soyinka (punim imenom Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, rođen 13. jula 1934. u Abeokuti, Nigerija) jedan je od najznačajnijih afričkih pisaca, dramatičara, esejista i javnih intelektualaca. Bio je prvi afrički laureat Nobelove nagrade za književnost (1986), nagrađen za „široku kulturnu perspektivu i poetsku snagu koja oblikuje dramu postojanja”.
Studirao je englesku književnost na Univerzitetu u Ibadanу, a potom i na Univerzitetu u Lidsu u Velikoj Britaniji. Već tokom studija počinje da piše drame, a nakon povratka u Nigeriju aktivno učestvuje u kulturnom i političkom životu zemlje.
Soyinka je poznat po dramama koje spajaju zapadnu dramsku tradiciju sa afričkim (posebno jorubskim) mitom i ritualom. Njegova najpoznatija dela uključuju drame A Dance of the Forests (1960), The Road (1965), Death and the King’s Horseman (1975), kao i romane The Interpreters (1965) i Season of Anomy (1973). Značajan je i kao esejista, posebno u knjigama poput Myth, Literature and the African World (1976), gde razvija svoju teoriju o odnosu mita, rituala i književnosti.
Tokom građanskog rata u Nigeriji (1967–1970) Soyinka je bio zatvoren zbog političkih stavova i pokušaja posredovanja između sukobljenih strana. Iskustvo zatvora opisao je u memoarskoj knjizi The Man Died (1972). Tokom života često je bio u egzilu zbog kritike autoritarnih režima u Nigeriji.
Pored književnog rada, Soyinka je i profesor, predavao je na brojnim univerzitetima širom sveta (Ibadan, Ife, Harvard, Yale i drugi). Njegovo delo karakteriše snažan moralni angažman, kritika tiranije i nasilja, kao i duboko ukorenjivanje u afričkoj kulturnoj i mitološkoj tradiciji.
Smatra se jednim od ključnih glasova savremene svetske književnosti i jednim od najvažnijih tumača odnosa između afričke i zapadne kulturne paradigme.

MG P14 (N)