Echoes of Yoruba Oral Traditions in Contemporary Nigerian Dramaturgy

This book discusses the new roles assigned to oral traditions in the works of contemporary playwrights, and asserts that these oral materials, though old, have enduring vitality and relevance for modern-day society. By looking at the African cultural matrix of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria, this book presents a study of the strategies frequently adopted by contemporary Nigerian playwrights to preserve folkloric materials in their creative works and examines how these writers manipulate different forms of oral tradition to bring cultural and social vision to bear in their dramaturgy.

Examines how contemporary Nigerian playwrights borrow from and preserve forms of Yoruba oral tradition in their work Explores the ways materials from the oral tradition can be adapted in order to address contemporary societal concerns Contributes to the intellectual retrieval and renewal of the oral traditions forming part of Africa's cultural heritage

Autorentext

Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

Klappentext

This timely book has opened new discussions on Yoruba names and naming, legendary figures and heroes, oral poetic genres and modern drama, and the ever-booming contemporary Yoruba films. The book establishes and, at the same time, expands new scholarly horizons for Yoruba scholarship in the global century, demonstrating the connection between Yoruba theater and the Yoruba traditional orality! The book has successfully mobilized history, culture, oral traditions, contributions from legendary and contemporary scholars, modern Yoruba archives, and more in producing the ever-rich material that would be a major source of understanding the all-powerful contributions of Yoruba aesthetics and beyond in contemporary modernity!

Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah , University of Abuja, Nigeria

This book has aptly demonstrated that the Yoruba playwrights nourish their works with vast verbal traditions and folkloric materials that are dexterously woven with modern dramatic texts; thus, beyond the aestheticism, the book has firmly established that intertextuality of indigenous and modern materials enable the sustainability of the inner spirit and cultural practices in theater. This new post-colonial text dwells on the survival of the Yoruba souls as espoused in theatrics. The book will be a useful companion to researchers, academics, students, and the general reading public.

Durotoye Adeleke , Ajayi Crowther University, Nigeria

This book discusses the new roles assigned to oral traditions in the works of contemporary playwrights, and asserts that these oral materials, though old, have enduring vitality and relevance for modern-day society. By looking at the African cultural matrix of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria, this book presents a study of the strategies frequently adopted by contemporary Nigerian playwrights to preserve folkloric materials in their creative works and examines how these writers manipulate different forms of oral tradition to bring cultural and social vision to bear in their dramaturgy.

Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

Inhalt

.- Introduction.- Section I: Reconfiguration of Cultural Traditions & History.- 1. Onomastic Strategies: Names and Naming of Characters.- 2. Myth, Legend, and Poetics of Heroism in ba Kòso and àngó.- 3. History and the Dramatists: The Reenactment of the Nineteenth Century Yoruba Ijaye War in la Rotimi's Kurunmi and Wale Ogunymi's Ijaye.- Section II: Echoes of Oral Poetic Genres.- 4. Old Wisdom, New Role: Proverbs in Akinwumi Ila's Madam Tinubu: Terror in Lagos.- 5. The Art of Praise Singing (Oríkì) in Modern Drama.- 6. Reconfiguration of Folk songs in the Dramaturgy of Akinwumi Ila, Wle oyinka, and Fmi fisan.- Section III: Orality and Aesthetic Transfer in Video Films.- 7. Ifá Divination Motif in Yoruba Video Films.- 8. Orature, Aesthetic Transfer, and Social Vision in aworoid and Agogo Èèw.