Abstract
Harold Bloom’s contention in his magisterial work, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), that “Shakespeare encloses us because we see with his fundamental perceptions” could be related to early Shakespeare adaptation scholarship when the phrase “the adaptation of” assumed that a new work which echoes the Shakespeare canon is an inferior version of the ‘original’, one which fidelity criticism had effectively countered. While this point is underlined here by Bloom’s notion of “fundamental perceptions”, stories such as “The Complete Gentleman” in Yorùbáland of southwest Nigeria and in its multiple manifestations in several West African countries, demonstrate the human capacity to recreate itself through narratives. That stories have endless roots in multiple climes and times as a reflection of social awareness and prevailing circumstances rather than the creative genius of a single author, is a point this traditional narrative underscores in its multiple variations. In this paper, I use the lens of the narrative to provide an African addition to the multiple heritage of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by examining two Nigerian plays: Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods (1972) and Femi Osofisan’s Farewell to a Cannibal Rage (1986), iterations of the story of supposed “star-crossed lovers” which appear to echo Romeo and Juliet but are not adaptation of Shakespeare. I show how the Yorùbá folk narrative at the heart of both plays underpins their cultural sources as do the strategy of narration and social relevance, differently from the tragic lovers in Romeo and Juliet.
Presenters
Olalekan BalogunLecturer, School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
CULTURE, MYTH, SOCIAL REALITY, SHAKESPEARE, TRANSTEXTUALITY, YORUBA
