Simon Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813036021
- eISBN:
- 9780813038636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813036021.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter tries to portray that the British drama's canon illustrates the stubborn “otherness” of Africa, permitting the repetition of stereotypical, historically incurious representations of ...
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This chapter tries to portray that the British drama's canon illustrates the stubborn “otherness” of Africa, permitting the repetition of stereotypical, historically incurious representations of Africa by British dramatists—whether conservative or progressive—while still holding Anglophone African writers at arm's length. The chapter scrutinizes three plays: The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot, Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka, and Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill. All these novels re-create a moment in colonial history as per the author's modern point of view.Less
This chapter tries to portray that the British drama's canon illustrates the stubborn “otherness” of Africa, permitting the repetition of stereotypical, historically incurious representations of Africa by British dramatists—whether conservative or progressive—while still holding Anglophone African writers at arm's length. The chapter scrutinizes three plays: The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot, Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka, and Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill. All these novels re-create a moment in colonial history as per the author's modern point of view.
