Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in A

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Looking at the works of Baraka, Soyinka, Walcott and Shange and their historical trajectories in black anti-Eurocentric discourses, Olaniyan shows how these writers are preoccupied with the invention of a post-imperial cultural identity.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

This original work redefines and broadens our understanding of the drama of the English-speaking African diaspora. Looking closely at the work of Amiri Baraka, Nobel prize-winners Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott, and Ntozake Shange, the author contends that the refashioning of the collective cultural self in black drama originates from the complex intersection of three discourses: Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and Post-Afrocentric. Fromblackface minstrelsy to the Trinidad Carnival, from the Black Aesthetic to the South African Black Consciousness theatres and the scholarly debate on the (non)existence of African drama, Olaniyan cogentlymaps the terrains of a cultural struggle and underscores a peculiar situation in which the inferiorization of black performance forms is most often a shorthand for subordinating black culture and corporeality. Drawing on insights from contemporary theory and cultural studies, and offering detailed readings of the above writers, Olaniyan shows how they occupy the interface between the Afrocentric and a liberating Post-Afrocentric space where black theatrical-culturaldifference could be envisioned as a site of multiple articulations: race, class, gender, genre, and language.

Author Biography

Tejumola Olaniyan is Professor in English at the University of Wisconsin. His publications include: "Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African American and Caribbean Drama" (1995), "Arrest the Music: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics" (2004), and he is coeditor of "African Drama and Performance" (2004).
Ato Quayson is Professor in English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnationalism Studies, University of Toronto. His previous publications include "Strategic Transformation in Nigerian Writing" (1997), "Postcolonialis

Review

"An excellent job and...[a] must for students of African Literature."--V.Y. Mudimbe, Duke University."[This book] is destined to elevate comparative research on African Diaspora drama out of the sub-basement of scholarship. Olaniyan literally performs this transformation by his choice of authors, carefull attention to texts, and criticism informed broadly by a rich dialogue among contemporary cultural and literary theorists.... The argument is presented forcfully, at times eloquently, with a turn of phrase likely to be quoted in the future by otherscholars."--Ve Ve Clark, University of California, Berkeley."A long overdue and very successful comparaitve approach to several of the most important contemporary Black playwrights. Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance offers a fascinating, ambitious, and challenging reading of modern pan-African drama as a specific conceptual formation and cultural practice. Drawing on a variety of contemporary critical languages, but equally conversant in the contestatory idioms of Negritude writers, Fanon, and theirinheritors, Olaniyan illuminates not only the convergence of competing discourses and historical pressures that helped shape a distinctive pan-African theater, but forces reconsideration of the drama's "ambiguous"stagings of anticolonial and "post-Afrocentric" aspirations. Olaniyan's attention to subtle inflections of language and genre produce stimulating and persuasive readings of individual plays, and form the core of his vision of Black drama as an endless "reinvention" of postcolonial identities."--Kimberly W. Benston, Haverford College."The publication of this book marks the emergence of a major new intellect in the field of post-colonial studies."--Abiola Irele, The Ohio State University, and Editor, Research in African Literatures."An excellent job and...[a] must for students of African Literature."--V.Y. Mudimbe, Duke University."[This book] is destined to elevate comparative research on African Diaspora drama out of the sub-basement of scholarship. Olaniyan literally performs this transformation by his choice of authors, carefull attention to texts, and criticism informed broadly by a rich dialogue among contemporary cultural and literary theorists.... The argument is presented forcfully, at times eloquently, with a turn of phrase likely to be quoted in the future by otherscholars."--Ve Ve Clark, University of California, Berkeley."A long overdue and very successful comparaitve approach to several of the most important contemporary Black playwrights. Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance offers a fascinating, ambitious, and challenging reading of modern pan-African drama as a specific conceptual formation and cultural practice. Drawing on a variety of contemporary critical languages, but equally conversant in the contestatory idioms of Negritude writers, Fanon, and theirinheritors, Olaniyan illuminates not only the convergence of competing discourses and historical pressures that helped shape a distinctive pan-African theater, but forces reconsideration of the drama's "ambiguous"stagings of anticolonial and "post-Afrocentric" aspirations. Olaniyan's attention to subtle inflections of language and genre produce stimulating and persuasive readings of individual plays, and form the core of his vision of Black drama as an endless "reinvention" of postcolonial identities."--Kimberly W. Benston, Haverford College."The publication of this book marks the emergence of a major new intellect in the field of post-colonial studies."--Abiola Irele, The Ohio State University, and Editor, Research in African Literatures.

Long Description

This original work redefines and broadens our understanding of the drama of the English-speaking African diaspora. Looking closely at the work of Amiri Baraka, Nobel prize-winners Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott, and Ntozake Shange, the author contends that the refashioning of the collective cultural self in black drama originates from the complex intersection of three discourses: Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and Post-Afrocentric. Fromblackface minstrelsy to the Trinidad Carnival, from the Black Aesthetic to the South African Black Consciousness theatres and the scholarly debate on the (non)existence of African drama, Olaniyan cogently maps the terrains of a cultural struggle and underscores a peculiar situation in which theinferiorization of black performance forms is most often a shorthand for subordinating black culture and corporeality. Drawing on insights from contemporary theory and cultural studies, and offering detailed readings of the above writers, Olaniyan shows how they occupy the interface between the Afrocentric and a liberating Post-Afrocentric space where black theatrical-cultural difference could be envisioned as a site of multiple articulations: race, class, gender,genre, and language.

Review Text

"An excellent job and...[a] must for students of African Literature."--V.Y. Mudimbe, Duke University."[This book] is destined to elevate comparative research on African Diaspora drama out of the sub-basement of scholarship. Olaniyan literally performs this transformation by his choice of authors, carefull attention to texts, and criticism informed broadly by a rich dialogue among contemporary cultural and literary theorists.... The argument is presented forcfully, at times eloquently, with a turn of phrase likely to be quoted in the future by otherscholars."--Ve Ve Clark, University of California, Berkeley."A long overdue and very successful comparaitve approach to several of the most important contemporary Black playwrights. Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance offers a fascinating, ambitious, and challenging reading of modern pan-African drama as a specific conceptual formation and cultural practice. Drawing on a variety of contemporary critical languages, but equally conversant in the contestatory idioms of Negritude writers, Fanon, and theirinheritors, Olaniyan illuminates not only the convergence of competing discourses and historical pressures that helped shape a distinctive pan-African theater, but forces reconsideration of the drama's "ambiguous" stagings of anticolonial and "post-Afrocentric" aspirations. Olaniyan's attention to subtle inflectionsof language and genre produce stimulating and persuasive readings of individual plays, and form the core of his vision of Black drama as an endless "reinvention" of postcolonial identities."--Kimberly W. Benston, Haverford College."The publication of this book marks the emergence of a major new intellect in the field of post-colonial studies."--Abiola Irele, The Ohio State University, and Editor, Research in African Literatures."An excellent job and...[a] must for students of African Literature."--V.Y. Mudimbe, Duke University."[This book] is destined to elevate comparative research on African Diaspora drama out of the sub-basement of scholarship. Olaniyan literally performs this transformation by his choice of authors, carefull attention to texts, and criticism informed broadly by a rich dialogue among contemporary cultural and literary theorists.... The argument is presented forcfully, at times eloquently, with a turn of phrase likely to be quoted in the future by otherscholars."--Ve Ve Clark, University of California, Berkeley."A long overdue and very successful comparaitve approach to several of the most important contemporary Black playwrights. Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance offers a fascinating, ambitious, and challenging reading of modern pan-African drama as a specific conceptual formation and cultural practice. Drawing on a variety of contemporary critical languages, but equally conversant in the contestatory idioms of Negritude writers, Fanon, and theirinheritors, Olaniyan illuminates not only the convergence of competing discourses and historical pressures that helped shape a distinctive pan-African theater, but forces reconsideration of the drama's "ambiguous" stagings of anticolonial and "post-Afrocentric" aspirations. Olaniyan's attention to subtle inflectionsof language and genre produce stimulating and persuasive readings of individual plays, and form the core of his vision of Black drama as an endless "reinvention" of postcolonial identities."--Kimberly W. Benston, Haverford College."The publication of this book marks the emergence of a major new intellect in the field of post-colonial studies."--Abiola Irele, The Ohio State University, and Editor, Research in African Literatures.

Review Quote

"[This book] is destined to elevate comparative research on AfricanDiaspora drama out of the sub-basement of scholarship. Olaniyan literallyperforms this transformation by his choice of authors, carefull attention totexts, and criticism informed broadly by a rich dialogue among contemporarycultural and literary theorists.... The argument is presented forcfully, attimes eloquently, with a turn of phrase likely to be quoted in the future byother scholars."--Ve Ve Clark, University of California, Berkeley.

Details ISBN0195094069 Author Tejumola Olaniyan Short Title SCARS OF CONQUEST/MASKS OF RES Language English ISBN-10 0195094069 ISBN-13 9780195094060 Media Book Format Paperback Year 1995 Illustrations bibliography Residence Madison, VA, US Affiliation University of Wisconsin-Madison Subtitle The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African-American and Caribbean Drama Position Assistant Professor of English Imprint Oxford University Press Inc Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States UK Release Date 1995-08-24 AU Release Date 1995-08-24 NZ Release Date 1995-08-24 US Release Date 1995-08-24 Pages 208 Publisher Oxford University Press Inc Publication Date 1995-08-24 Alternative 9780195094053 DEWEY 812.009355 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this

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