A New Interpretation of Double Consciousness: The Case of Wole Soyinka
Aslı KutlukThis study argues that double consciousness as a sociopsychological situation manifests in various ways under colonial and postcolonial circumstances. Although W.E.B. Du Bois introduced the concept of double consciousness at the beginning of the twentieth century to describe an inward feeling of doubleness experienced by African American individuals, this concept has inspired postcolonial theorists such as Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, and Paul Gilroy. Hence, this study will briefly explain the contemporary theoretical reflections of Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness, demonstrating how this concept can be handled with a more contemporary and comprehensive perspective and exemplifying this through the plays of Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka. Examples have been selected from Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, The Lion and the Jewel, and The Invention. These plays show various manifestations of double consciousness as a condition involving a double-sided interaction between the colonizer and the colonized. Each play reveals a different aspect of double consciousness with its expanded and updated meaning in this study.
Çifte Bilinçliliğe Yeni Bir Yorum: Wole Soyinka Örneği
Aslı KutlukBu çalışma, sosyopsikolojik bir durum olarak çifte bilinçliliğin kolonyal ve postkolonyal şartlarda çeşitli şekillerde dışa vurduğunu savunur. W.E.B. Du Bois çifte bilinçlilik kavramını 20. yüzyılın başında Afrikalı Amerikalı bireylerin içsel ikilik hissini tanımlamak üzere ortaya atmış olsa da bu kavram, Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall ve Paul Gilroy gibi postkolonyal kuramcılara ilham kaynağı olmuştur. Dolayısıyla bu çalışmada Du Bois’in çifte bilinçlilik kavramının günümüzdeki kuramsal yansımaları ana hatlarıyla anlatılarak bu kavramın daha güncel ve kapsamlı bir bakış açısı ile ele alınabileceği gösterilmiş ve bu bakış açısı Nijeryalı yazar Wole Soyinka’nın oyunları üzerinden örneklendirilmiştir. Çalışmada Soyinka’nın Death and the King’s Horseman (Ölüm ve Kralın Süvarisi), The Lion and the Jewel (Aslan ile Mücevher) ve The Invention (İcat) isimli oyunlarından örnekler verilmiştir. Bu oyunlar sömürgeci ile sömürülen arasındaki çift taraflı etkileşimleri içeren bir durum olarak çifte bilinçliliğin çeşitli şekillerde dışavurumlarını göstermektedir. Her bir oyun, teorik açıdan bu çalışmada genişletilmiş ve güncelleştirilmiş anlamıyla çifte bilinçliliğin farklı bir yönünü ortaya koymaktadır.
Colonial and postcolonial encounters have paradoxically been effective at enriching the genre of drama and the art of theatre due to the cultural interactions between European and non-European societies. Playwrights from non-European countries such as Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, Athol Fugard, and Ama Ata Aidoo have gained recognition in the international arena in this context, especially since the second half of the twentieth century, while Western theatre has also progressed with cultural material drawn from non-Western cultures. Meanwhile, by writing from the margins, postcolonial playwrights have exposed the problematic processes and consequences of the colonial past and have developed liberating ideas in their works opposing the colonialist discourses. Within this context, one of the issues that colonial and postcolonial studies discuss is the sociopsychological effects of colonial oppression.
Nigerian playwright and activist, Wole Soyinka, holds an outstanding position in postcolonial drama with his unique style of combining European and non-European cultural and theatrical elements to reflect his thought-provoking ideas on colonialism and postcolonialism. In this respect, this study focuses on how double consciousness manifests itself in various ways under colonial and postcolonial circumstances as reflected in Soyinka’s selected plays. This study briefly explains the concept of double consciousness as defined by W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) in the early twentieth century and its more contemporary reflections in the postcolonial theories of Homi K. Bhabha and Stuart Hall in particular, exemplifying these through Soyinka’s selected plays of Death and the King’s Horseman (1975), The Lion and the Jewel (1963), and The Invention (1959).
This study claims and demonstrates that, although Du Bois’s conceptualization of double consciousness seems outdated in the contemporary discourses of postcolonial theory, it is adaptive and can be explored more contemporarily and comprehensively. Soyinka’s plays that were particularly selected for this study allow for the opportunity to explore the conceptualization of double consciousness both from a Du Boisian perspective as well as from contemporary extensions of Du Bois’s ideas. Owing much to the postcolonial theories of Bhabha in The Location of Culture (1994) and Hall in “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” (1990) and “Race, The Floating Signifier” (1996), the theoretical perspective suggested in this study brings a new and expanded meaning to the conceptualization of double consciousness as exemplified through Soyinka’s plays, which reveal a variety of double consciousness experiences characterized by reciprocal interactions between the colonizer and the colonized.
Death and the King’s Horseman is an Aristotelian Yoruba tragedy that presents different manifestations of the double consciousness characters experience based on their cultural positionalities. The Lion and the Jewel is a romantic comedy that shows the double consciousnesses of characters who are situated ambivalently within both colonial and traditional (especially Yoruba) power structures. The Invention is a dark, dystopic satire on the Apartheid in South Africa, unlike the other two plays. Problematizing the relation between racism and double consciousness, this early play by Soyinka enforces the idea that Soyinka has been exploring the issue of double consciousness and its extensions since the beginning of his career and that double consciousness as a comprehensive and updated term is essential to understanding Soyinka’s drama from the very beginning.
This study concludes that double consciousness as a sociopsychological state experienced not only by African Americans but also by colonized people in general manifests in a variety of ways in colonial and postcolonial contexts. This study has addressed the concept of double consciousness in a broader context than Du Bois’s original use, with respect to some contemporary theoretical concepts by Hall and Bhabha. As a result, this new and expanded interpretation of double consciousness suggested in this study provides a new methodology for exploring other works by postcolonial playwrights, one which can contribute significantly to current studies in postcolonial drama.
