A DECONSTRUCTIVE READING OF WOLE SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN AND THE ROAD

A DECONSTRUCTIVE READING OF WOLE SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN AND THE ROAD

Abstract:

African literary elites have responded to the call by Africans to free the continent from all forms of colonial and slave mentality. While others have responded overtly, Soyinka does so covertly. As a result, over time, critical commentaries on his works have been on the mythical presentation of the Yoruba world as a microcosm of the entire African continent and the post-colonial experience. While these commentaries cannot be totally erased, this research exposes the pitfalls, the blindspots and the aporias that characterize most African writings. Consequently, this research discusses Soyinka’s two plays; Death and the King’s Horseman and The Road as Soyinka’s unconscious hatred for the West. Clearly, African writers in an attempt to counter Western perception of Africa as being uncultured unwittingly enter the same conceptual web. To foreground such instances this research deploys deconstructive method of reading to bring to the fore some of the biased presentation of the Western world in all its fauna and flora. Although, deconstructive approach is “esoteric”, it is distinct in pointing out binary oppositions and how such binaries work to undo any artistic creation. Consequently, this research is premised on the following assumptions; that there is a biased portraiture of the Western world; that Africa’s position as the Other in Western metaphysics has been reversed to take the privileged position while the West becomes a negation. What Derrida calls supplementation. This research stresses the creative freedom of the reader as well as the attempt to participate in and observe the play of possible meanings to which the texts give access.

A DECONSTRUCTIVE READING OF WOLE SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN AND THE ROAD