A Dance of the Forest - 4738 Words

The Drama of Existence: Myths and Rituals in Wole Soyinka’s Theatre Rosa Figueiredo, Polytecnic of Guarda, Portugal Abstract: The citation for Soyinka’s 1986 Nobel prize for literature reads: â€Å"Who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones, fashions the drama of existence†. The â€Å"wide cultural perspective† mentioned refers to the fact that Soyinka’s writings, especially the dramas for which he is best known, are at once deeply rooted in traditional African expressive and performance forms like myths and rituals, dance and mime, music and masquerade and are also greatly influenced by such diverse Western dramatic and theatrical modes as classical Greek drama, Shakespearean and Jacobean theatre, and modern European and American†¦show more content†¦It centred on a conception of the medium as ritual, the only means whereby societal or the collective consciousness could be impacted. Soyinka shared a Jungian concept of myth and ritual as the natural effluence of man’s yearning for spiritual meaning in life. He understood ritual to denot e the communicative aspect of culturally defined sets of behaviour or customs, a much wider interpretation of the term than that by Aristotle or Nietzsche. He averred that the dramatic performance of a recognizable rite, a rite drawn from the mythical heritage of the community, forces the active participation of members of the community in the ritual. Through submergence in the ritual members of the community emerge with a new consciousness of themselves as individuals and as a collective. Soyinka, therefore, used the ritual format to express his consciousness of socio-political imperatives, precisely because of its communal or audience affective qualities. Thus, the playwright envisaged the consequent awakening of communal consciousness to be the preliminary step towards change or action. The scope of this paper – which does not claim to be exhaustive – is to explore some elements connected with the dramaturgy of A Dance of the Forests, thus showing how Soyinka experi ments with ritual and theatrical idioms by drawing upon what he calls the â€Å"aesthetic matrix† of his own Yoruba culture (orShow MoreRelatedSample Resume : Dance Review Form965 Words   |  4 PagesDance Review Form Instructions 1. Your WOTA instructor will have provided you with details on the event and what they expect for proof of attendance. It would be a good idea to have this review form handy so that you know the questions you’ll be answering. Give yourself enough time to attend the gallery and view all of the works contained, before you choose the one you want to review. 2. Do not try to write this review during the event, but you may want to jot down some impressions on the programRead MoreManipur Tourism1748 Words   |  7 Pagesto keep a watch while he danced the Ras with Radha and Gopis. 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