Satire is the literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards its attitudes manner in which the follies and foibles or vices are unmasked by the satirist. The great modern age of satire was the neo-classic period when the satiric spirit was everywhere present and a return was made to formal verse satire. This paper examines how Soyinka has responded to the socio-political and economic situation in Africa by creating A Play of Giants. It also examines how Soyinka, a sensitive playwright, in A Play of Giants mirrors events in the African society in such a daring and imaginative manner by satirizing them. The findings reveal that Soyinka presents his characters as hollow men to show their worthlessness and emptiness despite being at the helms of power. Soyinka reveals the hollowness of the characters exposing their linguistic incompetence. This study identifies some devices technically deployed by Soyinka to include irony, humour, wit, sarcasm and symbolism. Through the use of satire, Soyinka targets African political leaders who have become monsters because of the powers they wield. Wole Soyinka uses satire to raise the consciousness of the people and prick the conscience of the ruling political elite in Africa.
| Published in | International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13 |
| Page(s) | 320-325 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Satire, Modern African Drama, A Play of Giants, Satirical Devices
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| [2] | Akpah, B. C. 2018. Satire, humour and parody in 21st Century Nigerian women’s poetry. The European Jounal of Humour Research. 6 (4). |
| [3] | Soyinka, Wole. (1967) Kongi's Harvest. Oxford; Oxford University Press. |
| [4] | Soyinka, W. 1981. Opera Wonyosi. London. Rex Collings. |
| [5] | Jeyifo, B. 2004. Wole Soyinka: politics, poetics and postcolonialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
| [6] | Harris, Robert (2004) “The Purpose and Method of Satire”. Virtual Salt, Retrieved May 28, 2007 from http://www.virtual salt.com/satire.htm. |
| [7] | Taiwo, R. 2007. Satirizing Politicians and Public Officers in Nigerian Newspapers. The International Journal of Language Society and Culture. Issue 27: 19-28. |
| [8] | Ngugi, wa Thiong'o 1972. Homecoming. London. Heinemann. |
| [9] | Darah, G. G. 2005. Battles of Songs: Udje Tradition of the Urhobo. Malt House Press, Lagos. |
| [10] | Wright, D. 1992. "Soyinka's Smoking Shotgun: The Later Satires", World Literature Today, 66 (1), 27-34. |
| [11] | Soyinka, W. (1984) A Play of Giants. Ibadan; Spectrum Books Limited. |
| [12] | Falola, T. 2019. In praise of greatness – the poetics of African adulation. Durham: Carolina Academic Press. |
APA Style
Ademola Adenigbo, Matthew Alugbin. (2020). A Satirical Reading of Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(6), 320-325. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13
ACS Style
Ademola Adenigbo; Matthew Alugbin. A Satirical Reading of Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(6), 320-325. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13
AMA Style
Ademola Adenigbo, Matthew Alugbin. A Satirical Reading of Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(6):320-325. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13,
author = {Ademola Adenigbo and Matthew Alugbin},
title = {A Satirical Reading of Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants},
journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
volume = {8},
number = {6},
pages = {320-325},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200806.13},
abstract = {Satire is the literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards its attitudes manner in which the follies and foibles or vices are unmasked by the satirist. The great modern age of satire was the neo-classic period when the satiric spirit was everywhere present and a return was made to formal verse satire. This paper examines how Soyinka has responded to the socio-political and economic situation in Africa by creating A Play of Giants. It also examines how Soyinka, a sensitive playwright, in A Play of Giants mirrors events in the African society in such a daring and imaginative manner by satirizing them. The findings reveal that Soyinka presents his characters as hollow men to show their worthlessness and emptiness despite being at the helms of power. Soyinka reveals the hollowness of the characters exposing their linguistic incompetence. This study identifies some devices technically deployed by Soyinka to include irony, humour, wit, sarcasm and symbolism. Through the use of satire, Soyinka targets African political leaders who have become monsters because of the powers they wield. Wole Soyinka uses satire to raise the consciousness of the people and prick the conscience of the ruling political elite in Africa.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - A Satirical Reading of Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants AU - Ademola Adenigbo AU - Matthew Alugbin Y1 - 2020/11/23 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13 DO - 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13 T2 - International Journal of Literature and Arts JF - International Journal of Literature and Arts JO - International Journal of Literature and Arts SP - 320 EP - 325 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-057X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.13 AB - Satire is the literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards its attitudes manner in which the follies and foibles or vices are unmasked by the satirist. The great modern age of satire was the neo-classic period when the satiric spirit was everywhere present and a return was made to formal verse satire. This paper examines how Soyinka has responded to the socio-political and economic situation in Africa by creating A Play of Giants. It also examines how Soyinka, a sensitive playwright, in A Play of Giants mirrors events in the African society in such a daring and imaginative manner by satirizing them. The findings reveal that Soyinka presents his characters as hollow men to show their worthlessness and emptiness despite being at the helms of power. Soyinka reveals the hollowness of the characters exposing their linguistic incompetence. This study identifies some devices technically deployed by Soyinka to include irony, humour, wit, sarcasm and symbolism. Through the use of satire, Soyinka targets African political leaders who have become monsters because of the powers they wield. Wole Soyinka uses satire to raise the consciousness of the people and prick the conscience of the ruling political elite in Africa. VL - 8 IS - 6 ER -
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