The study uses Marxist literary theory to investigate the effects of social structure and how economic relations influence acts of suicide in the play. Exploring thematic dimensions: Ogunyemi's the Vow in perspective 175 6.4.1 The war made indescribable: lamentations and punishments in the vow 175 6.4.2.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
The act of suicide in the plays is studied in the socio-cultural context of the traditional Yoruba culture of southwestern Nigeria. A sociopolitical factor, which Gvion and Apter believe, is also relevant to the understanding of suicide.
Statement of the Problem
This has produced different schools of thought on what would be the best approach to the study of suicide (Whitt, 2010). More than that, it promulgates an African worldview in which the conception of suicide differs from dominant Western perceptions.
Objectives of the Study
The interpretation is essentially intended to properly articulate the people's worldview and how suicide is portrayed in the context of the selected plays.
Research Questions
Scope of the Study
- The Yoruba: A socio-cultural history, myth and belief systems
These Orisa are responsible for directing the daily and other human affairs of the Yoruba person. The beliefs of the Yoruba people vary greatly from one part of the Yoruba area to another.
Methodology of the Study
To connect with Olorun, the Yoruba people perform many elaborate rituals and festivals in honor of the gods during the worship process. The belief is that those who have died are still very close to the world of the living, especially to their relatives, whom they protect from evil and other vicissitudes of life.
Significance of the Study
The ideological analysis will examine the representations and motives of suicide in the plays of some of these authors and their cultural reception and understanding.
About the Authors 1 Soyinka, Wole
- Ola Rotimi
- Wale Ogunyemi
It presents the theory that will be used for the analysis of the selected plays. The chapter then provides a critical analysis of the acts of suicide as expressed in the play.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Analytical focus on these performances in a socio-cultural perspective can provide a better understanding of the full significance of suicide. Little attention has been given to understanding the full significance of suicide, especially in the works of the three Nigerian authors I am studying.
Comprehending Death in traditional Yoruba Culture of South-West Nigeria
It is this defined space that he interprets as 'the fourth stage, the vortex of archetypes and the home of the tragic spirit.' The same scenario plays out in Rotimi's Kurunmi (1971), where the death of the king is expected to follow immediately will be caused by the suicide of his son.
Tradition and Suicide in Yoruba Culture: South-West Nigeria
Honor is the value of a person in his own eyes, but also in the eyes of society. Among such groups, an act of dishonor by a single member would affect all others just as a single member would cherish the honor of the group.
Suicide: Representations in other cultures
The reception of suicide therefore depended on the degree of rationality behind the act. These scenarios were contained in the epic of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which revealed that when Lord Sri Ram died, a suicide epidemic took place in his kingdom, Ajodhya.
Suicide: Reflections and representations in African plays
The knowledge and impact of suicide is not beyond the understanding of the traditional African worldview. It aims to instill a sense of communal pride amid the war-torn black empires.
Suicide in Western and contemporary literature
Charlotte Corday, the self-appointed Girondist martyr of the French Revolution, is one of the last of this tradition.” Yet Spanish-American suicide seems fundamentally romantic, the result of the enduring duality between reality and desire.
Suicide in different cultures: A comparative view
In Roman culture, suicide for the common good of society was more easily accepted than suicide for personal gain. In India, especially the tradition of sati forced a woman to commit suicide after losing her husband.
Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE
THEORETICAL CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
Introduction
Definitions of Marxism and its historical development
- Fundamental ideas of Marxism
- Fredric Jameson and his ideas of a Marxist literary theory
- Georg Lukacs and his Marxist Literary Model
- Terry Eagleton and his Marxist theoretical orientation
In Rotimi's Kurunmi, just as in Ogunyemi's The Vow, the leaders are representatives of the bourgeois class. Ogunyemi's the Vow also represents a cultural issue of the Yoruba people of the same region.
How Fredric Jameson, Georg Lukacs’ and Terry Eagleton provide a Marxist theoretical framework for literary analysis
- Applying Marxist literary theory to the text. Fundamental questions The theoretical postures of Jameson, Lukacs and Eagleton raised fundamental
Rotimi's Kurunmi as well as Ogunyemi's pledge also show and portray the class relations that revolve between the superstructure and the base. The fundamental issues facing the economic and social circumstances of the characters in The Death of Soyinka and the King's Knight, Kurunmi i Rotimi and Oath of Ogunyemi are fundamentally based on the attempt of the bourgeoisie to control the resources of the community.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSING SUICIDE IN SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN
Introduction
- A step into the history
- The synopsis of Death and the King’s Horseman
- Soyinka: Insight into his dramatic and theatrical vision
The dance takes Elesin deeper into his trance, and the devil rises to the end of the scene. He attended a Christian school and was exposed to the beauty and ugliness of religion.
Critical perspectives and debates on Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman
Usually the criticism of Death and the King's Horseman focuses on the discussion of the metaphysics of sacrifice. The King's Death and the Horseman are also viewed from a metacritical dimension that reveals the logic of political interpretations of the play.
Ritual, cultural politics and the question of suicide in Death and the king’s Horseman
The ritual suicide depicted in Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman allows for an understanding of Yoruba belief systems and values. These hidden stories are evident in the character of Elesin and the ritual suicide that defines the worldview of the Yoruba people.
Interrogating the evidence: Tradition versus modernity and the suicide of Elesin in Soyinka’s Death and the king’s horseman
The confrontation in the play is largely metaphysical, contained in the human vehicle that is Elesin and the universe of the Yoruba spirit - the world of the living, the dead and the unborn (Soyinka, 1975, p.i). Among the proverbs used in the play are those of confrontation and crisis.
Between institutionalized suicide and personal suicide: Death and the king’s horseman in perspective
Some spells expressed in Death and the King's Horseman may reveal greater meaning. Soyinka, in his play Death and the King's Horseman, represents this element of institutionalized suicide as basic and fundamental to the entire universe of the Yoruba mind.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUICIDE IN OLA ROTIMI’S KURUNMI
Introduction
As a cultural and historical text, the analysis will make explicit the play's reception in the traditional Yoruba culture of Southwestern Nigeria. This chapter conducts an analysis by considering the evidence and representation of the suicide act as a theme in the play.
From history to a Play: Exploring the His-[Story] of Rotimi’s Kurunmi
- Synopsis of Rotimi’s Kurunmi
Mann who comes to remind him (Kurunmi) that the people of Ijaye could not accept Christ as the savior. Some of the close chiefs around Kurunmi protest against Kurunmi's decision to go to war.
Potrait of Kurunmi of Ijaye, 1831-1862
- Exploring the thematic performance of politics and ideology in Kurunmi
- The War and the warring lords: The battle in Rotimi’s Kurunmi
O’Donnell (1997, p. 7) describes politics as one of the central themes in Rotimi's Kurunmi as “the means by which power is acquired and exercised”. Kurunmi is full of politics: the politics of succession in the Oyo dynastic structure that eventually culminated in war.
A Reading into Kurunmi’s suicide: Exploration and Re-interpretation The suicide of Kurunmi in Rotimi’s Kurunmi is one that engages a complicated
The dichotomies suggested in Rotimi's Kurunmi by the 'black and white' facts and images establish a dramatic world and political structure whose vocabulary, poetry and proverbs support the literal and 'monological' interpretation of the play. While the play itself has disrupted these images through the construction of a mysterious and complex black world, Kurunmi goes on to reaffirm his disgust towards the people of Ibadan who have allowed the influence of the white, Western world to prevail.
The Cultural politics of Rotimi’s Kurunmi and Kurunmi’s Suicide
This is why the play "Kurunmi and the suicide of Kurunmi" represents "a drama of the ruling class". What he envisions is a return to normalcy with the end of the war on display.
Between Death and dishonour: politically motivated suicide and social honour in Rotimi’s Kurunmi
The value of a person in his own eyes, but also in the eyes of society. However, in the case of Kurunmi, his suicide was motivated by his failures and defeat.
The ‘class conflict’ and ‘clash of interest’: Kurunmi’s suicide in perspective Societies and humanity in general have always been at the cross roads of
Moreover, with the news of the death of his five sons, life becomes meaningless. Class conflict and clash of interests make it possible to understand the meaning of Kurunmi's suicide.
The force of tradition versus modernity and Kurunmi’s Suicide
In Kurunmi (1971), Rotimi uses the oral tradition as an essential component of the personality of characters and character types. The oral tradition represented in Rotimi's Kurunmi manifests itself clearly and most importantly in Kurunmi's use of proverbs, which carry a deep linguistic reflection of the people's culture.
Conclusion/Summary of chapter
The chapter tried to justify the choice of theoretical framework in the various given sub-topics of suicide through analysis. It also paid close attention to the objectives of the study and to suicidal ideation as expressed in the literature review.
CHAPTER SIX
ANALYSING SUICIDE IN WALE OGUNYEMI’S THE VOW
Introduction
This chapter introduces Ogunyemi's dramaturgy and pays particular attention to the textual presentation and representation of suicide. The objectives of this chapter are primarily to understand the significance of the phenomenon of suicide in Ogunyemi's The Vow and how social structure also shapes the act of suicide as well as the cultural undertones inherent in this act of suicide.
Wale Ogunyemi’s dramaturgy and ideological vision: An Exploration Ogunyemi can be classified loosely as “a transitional dramatist who occupies a
For the king says; "the most fitting present of congratulation my heart desires for him, therefore, is a wife." The king's father's ghost appears to haunt the palace due to the king's indecision.
Exploring the thematic dimensions: Ogunyemi’s the Vow in perspective 1 War made unspeakable: lamentations and condemnations in The Vow
- Conflicting the conflict: culture in contradiction in Ogunyemi’s The Vow The value of every society lies largely in how culture is defined, perceived and
The internal conflict is about the king's decision to choose a bride for his son before he returns from America. The king's action creates a sense of internal and external unrest from the members of the community who do not support his decision.
Ancestors, elders and power in traditional African societies: Ogunyemi’s The Vow and the question of suicide in perspective
In Rotimi's Kurunmi (1971) the death of the king is expected to be followed by the suicide of his son Adelu to accompany him to the afterlife. Furthermore, in Ogunyemi's The Vow, the king adopts the powers of the ancestors as a tool to intimidate the people who seem to go against his will.
Cultural conflict and the tragic suicide of the king in The Vow
The king's suicide in Ogunyemi's Vow is driven by certain factors inherent to him as a person and based on the position he occupies as king. For him, the elements of pride, authority and power determine the meaning of the position he occupies.
