You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Scholars of Nigerian Drama and theatre usually conclude that the first generation of Nigerian dramatist merely mirror and explain the society not to change the status quo. Unfortunately, in their broad grouping of the proponent in the old order, Wole Soyinka is erroneously included, thus implying that his drama is lacking in radical/revolutionary aesthetics. This study examined selected plays of Wole Soyinka “Beautification of Area Boy” and “King Baabu” with a view to identifying the revolutionary aesthetics inherent in the plays. The study adopted two types of research methods for the collection of qualitative data- content analysis and literature review. To this end, the drama text in the study’s focus were analyzed. Review of secondary materials or historical sources such as wide range of published literature on radical aesthetics on the drama of Soyinka constituted sources of secondary data. Findings show that the frictions in the postcolonial Nigerian state mirrored in Beautification and King Baabu agree with the playwrights’ obsession that seeks on the improvement on dehumanizing and debilitating social condition and that in itself is a radical vision. The study however suggested that in line with Soyinka admission of the position that rebuffs the foisting of ideology on art and Soyinka’s vision which is entrenched in his crave for humanistic values, a strict labeling of the playwrights and his dramatic oeuvre as radical or non-revolutionary should be avoided.
