Clash of cultures in wole soyinka's death and the king's horseman

Abstract EN

This study introduces the postcolonial African theatre to the reader.

It depicts a close investigation that shows the untraditional image of Africa, which is based on identity politics of the colonizers and the cultural consciousness of the colonized.

It presents Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman (1975), showing a tragic hero, Elesin who falls from grace to shame as a result of internal and external elements.

The playwright sets his play in the colonial period and based on a true story.

The colonizers interfere in Elesin's fate, preventing him to commit a ritual suicide, and evoking him to question his identity.

The study analyses the playfrom a postcolonial perspective, presenting various images of the colonizers and the colonized.

It tries to apply some postcolonial concepts such as mimicry, hybridity, double consciousness, binary oppositions, cultural colonization, double oppression, stereotypes, resistance, and silence.

These terms are used and developed by some Postcolonial critics, including Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak.

The study takes into consideration the psychological side of the characters as well.

It ends with a conclusion that sums up the findings of the study.