HEROISM, REPRESENTATION AND COMMUNAL SALVATION IN WOLE SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN, A DANCE OF THE FORESTS AND THE STRONG BREED

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Soyinka’s vision of the relationship between the individual and society, mainly the idea of the "visceral intertwining of an individual with the fate of the community", is developed in some of his tragic plays.Soyinka's presentation of the vision of the tragic heroic self in A Dance of the Forests, The Strong Breed, and Death and the king's Horseman, is part of his project to bring about change in society and raise people’s consciousness and awareness to issues that might be detrimental to their future well-being. Throughout our study, we demonstrated that Soyinka believes that in order to release the society from what he termed in his play A Dance of the Forests"the soul-deadening habits", the chosen heroic agent that Soyinka outlines in his plays, would act as " the force of fusion between the various contradictions" inherent in his society.