Reading List

Jeyifo, Biodun, ed.  Modern African Drama:  Authoritative Texts, Background and Criticism (Norton, 2002).  Plays to be studied from this anthology include Tawfik al-Hakim, Fate of a Cockroach; Kateb Yacine, Intelligence Powder; Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Collision of Altars; Ama Ata Aidoo, The Dilemma of a Ghost; Femi Osofisan, Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels.

David Graver, ed. Drama for a New South Africa (Indiana c.1999). Plays to be studied from this anthology include Junction Avenue Theatre, Sophiatown; Zakes Mda, And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses; Brett Bailey, Ipi Zombi?; Reza De Wet, Reza, Crossings; Ismail Mahomed, Purdah.

Wole Soyinka, A Dance of the Forests; The Bacchae of Euripedes in Collected Plays I; The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis in Collected Plays II; and King Baabu (London:  Methuen, 2002).

Athol Fugard. Boesman and Lena; The Road to Mecca; Sorrow and Rejoicing (London:  Faber, 1996);  with John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Sizwe Bansi is Dead (in Modern African Drama).  John Berry’s 2000 film adaptation, Boesman and Lena (widely available in DVD), will be discussed.

Efua Sutherland, The Marriage of Anansewa; Edufa: Two Plays (Longman)

Ama Ata Aidoo. Anowa (Longman: 1970)

Onwueme, Tess, Three Plays:  The Broken Calabash, Parables for a Season and The Reign of Wazobia (Detroit:  Wayne State U. P., 1993); Riot in Heaven (New York and Lagos:  Africana Legacy, 1996). The video, Wazobia, will be discussed.

 Theoretical and background material, which includes articles on the plays and theorizations of African drama and theatre, will be found in the anthologies on the reading list. This will be supplemented with references to other materials as necessary.