Forget the Muse, think only of the (Decentered) Subject?
This essay involves an exploration of complex and fascinating acts of decentering and re-centering of writers in relation to traditional Muses as institutionalizations or sedimentations of artistic and intellectual inspiration in cultural tradition. Using the specific example of Wole Soyinka's much...
| Publicado en: | Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 51 - 64 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
2011
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=78348946&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 78348946 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0041476X 162I jtl: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde issn: 0041476X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2011 vid: 48 iid: 1 pid: 71603 pub: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde artinfo: ui: 78348946 10.4314/tvl.v48i1.63820 ppf: 51 ppct: 13 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 163KB tig: atl: Forget the Muse, think only of the (Decentered) Subject? aug: au: Jeyifo, Biodun affil: Professor of Literature and Comparative Literature and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA su: Inspiration Artistic creation Creative ability Critical theory Humanism sug: subj: Inspiration Artistic creation Creative ability Critical theory Humanism keyword: a-muse avant-garde critical theory decentering and recentering Muse the Subject of traditional humanism ab: This essay involves an exploration of complex and fascinating acts of decentering and re-centering of writers in relation to traditional Muses as institutionalizations or sedimentations of artistic and intellectual inspiration in cultural tradition. Using the specific example of Wole Soyinka's much discussed appropriation of Ogun, the Yoruba god of war, metallurgy and creativity as a point of departure, the paper gives what is intended as a far more complex and even more contradictory relationship between Soyinka and this chosen Muse than what we typically encounter in the criticism and scholarship on the Nigerian dramatist's writings. This is done in two distinct though interlocking interpretive, discursive moves: first, by reading Soyinka's positive appropriation of Ogun against Derek Walcott's disavowal of the Muses of both Europe and Africa in the play, Dream on Monkey Mountain and in one of his most important essays, "The Muse of History"; and, secondly, by critically excavating Soyinka's own scathing and revisionary critique of Ogun as a Muse in his first major play, A Dance of the Forests. Building on these readings of Soyinka and Walcott, the essay ends with a plea for paying as much attention, in the postcolonial Nigerian and African context, to re-centering as is given to decentering in Western postmodernist discourses, always with an eye to the interpenetrations and exchanges that take place among the diverse literary and cultural traditions of the world. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde is the property of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde holder: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde dt: @attributes: year: 2011 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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