A Critical Analysis Of Pretext, Text And Context In The Stage Production Of Death And The King S Horseman

📄 Project Abstract

Wole Soyinka has come to symbolise authority in Africa and world drama. His treatises and proclamations have attained such iconic reverence that his drama is often understood "only by the wholesome acceptance of his "esteemed authorial voice. Death and the King's Horseman has been considered a masterpiece; Soyinkas iconic play, and studies of the text have also revealed such heavy dependence on the authors perceptive intentions of his own work in the search for meaning. Seen largely from the authors perspective, the play is largely interpreted as Soyinkas mythopoeic dramatization of African drama. Hence, there exists a lack of sustained reading of the text outside its threnodic essence. This study adopts a new historicist approach to reading the text by exploring the indeterminacy of meaning, the textualisation of history and myth in interpreting pretext, text and context while seeking meaning differently from the authors intention. It also deploys the receptionist paradigm, also known...