Wole Soyinka, The Interpreters

Pauline Dodgson-Katiyo (Anglia Ruskin University)

Ed. by Helen Rachel Cousins, Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1965

Places

Nigeria (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

The Interpreters (1965), the first of Wole Soyinka’s two novels, moves away from the critical realist mode of the fiction of his fellow Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, and employs modernist techniques such as interior monologue and abrupt shifts of scene. With non-linear narration and written in elaborate poetic language, this experimental work draws attention self-reflexively to its own form and language. Like Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968), it is often cited as an example of an African novel of post-independence disillusionment. Although it has influenced other African novelists, notably Nuruddin Farah and Abdulrazak Gurnah (NCLA 2011), The Interpreters is not widely read or taught today. …

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2058 words

Citation: Dodgson-Katiyo, Pauline. "The Interpreters". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 March 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=496, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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