| Death and the King's Horseman (Norton Critical Editions) |  | Author: Wole Soyinka
Creator: Simon Gikandi
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
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Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 151,572
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0393977617
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.914
EAN: 9780393977615
ASIN: 0393977617
Publication Date: November 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Death and the King's Horseman (1975) is the most widely read work by Nigerian author Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. The text is accompanied by an introduction and explanatory annotations. "Backgrounds and Contexts" provides readers with a thorough understanding of the play's traditional African contexts. "Criticism" includes nine major essays on Death and the King's Horseman, focusing on the difficulties the play presents to its readers.
About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 Western Ignorance and Centrcity Imposing Itself On Africa April 15, 2003
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
In this play Soyinka gives such roundness to his characters that it is hard for some to decipher their goodness or "badness" as characters. The play is a story of the western colonizers' failure to recognize African culture as substantial. The play deals with the Yoruba religion and a specific ritual that is thwarted by an ignorant colonizer who does so for reasons traced back to ethnocentricity and racism. The man who is deemed to kill himself is pitied by the westerners and this shows their hippocrisy. By demanding that suicide was immoral and could not be a spiritual endeavor they denied the status of one of the most important men to grace Western Civilization with their presence: Jesus Christ. Christ gave himself away the same way that the character in this play does and did so for spiritual reasons that transcended himself.
THe play gives great insight into African culture and builds with intensity to a hugely climatic ending that is rewarding for the reader to experience.
One Great Writer May 25, 2000
Ross Ike (Lagos, Nigeria)
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
At a university seminar in the US recently, Prof. Soyinka was asked to respond to charges by certain critics that his writing wasn't 'African' enough. He responded, saying "The people who say these things, I refer to as neo-Tarzanists, people whose Africa is the Africa of Tarzan, swinging from tree to tree. That's not my Africa", he said, to a standing, thunderous ovation. It is difficult to imagine a writer in English today with a wider grasp of the language. Some of his work is unbelievable - metaphor, irony, the supernatural, interwoven with tragedy, lyricism, and language. Top-draw.
Very stirring November 25, 1999
Giovanni Papiro (Siena, Italy)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I read this book in 1996, and I still remember almost every detail because it was so stirring, so moving. It is about pride and obligations and how the two shape one's role in society. It made me review my own definitions of these two things, my own life in different societies. I'm delighted to have read this book and will be reading it many times over.
 Clash Between Two Cultures April 24, 2000
Ilana Maczka (San Diego, California)
15 out of 20 found this review helpful
Death and the King's Horseman is a play written by Wole Soyinka, whose main focus is on the difference between the Western culture as opposed to the African culture. In his play he demonstrates how the western culture feels superior to the African one by supposing that they can interfere in their customs. The westerners from the play, the Pilkings, invaded Nigeria where the tribe of Yoruba inhabits. Throughout the whole play, there was a constant struggle between the Pilkings and the people of the Yoruban tribe to stop a certain traditional ceremony practiced by the Yorubans. This consisted of the king's horseman commiting suicide one month after the king died. It was so customary and natural for this to occur, but for the westerners it was totally insane and inhumane. The end is very unpredictable and will keep you on the edge of your seat while reading this book. I highly recommend this book because it exhibits an abundant amount of insight on human nature and it also helps us attain a greater understanding of the African culture.
the truth about race relations November 30, 1999
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
This play is a must read for anyone seeking the truth about race relations around the world. Especially between African people and europeans. I think the author's account of how the europeans tried to rob the Africans of what little pride, religion and culture they still had left spoke of the horrible genocide that existed then and continues now. It's also most disheartening to know that African people can't even have their freedom in death.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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