Soyinka described his childhood in a small village in Africa. His father is a teacher and his mother is a social worker-both of them are Christians. But in the last generation, some witch doctors and others believed in ghosts, magic and any non-Christian rituals. We have come across a world where tree monsters, ghosts, magicians and primitive traditions in Africa are all active realities. We are also faced with a more complicated mythical world, which is rooted in a long-standing African oral culture. This narrative of childhood also provides a background for Soyinka's literary works-a close connection with rich and complicated African traditions and a personal experience.
Soyinka was famous as a playwright for a long time. His exploration of this art form is expected, because it is closely related to African materials, African language forms and comedy creation. His plays frequently and skillfully use many techniques that belong to stage art and are really rooted in African culture-dance, ceremony, mask play, pantomime, rhythm and music, impassioned speeches, in-and-out plays and so on. Compared with his later plays, his early plays are light and interesting-pranks, cynical scenes, pictures of daily life with vivid and humorous dialogues, etc. , and often based on a sad or grotesque feeling of life. Among these early dramas, it is worth mentioning Dance of the Forest, a midsummer night's dream in Africa, with tree spirits, ghosts, gods or demigods. It describes creation and sacrifice, and God or hero Ogen is one of these achievements. This Oggen has a Prometheus-like appearance-a demigod who is strong-willed and good at art, but also good at tactics and fighting, and is an image with both creative and destructive characters. Soyinka often involves this character.
Soyinka's plays are deeply rooted in the African world and African culture. He is also a well-read and undoubtedly knowledgeable writer and playwright. He is familiar with western literature, from Greek tragedies to Beckett and German dramatist and poet Brecht (1898- 1956). Apart from drama, he is also proficient in great European literature. For example, a writer like James Joyce left traces in his novels. Soyinka is a very cautious writer, especially in his novels and poems, he can write as deeply and subtly as the avant-garde. During the war, when he was in prison and later, his writing showed more tragic nature. Spiritual, moral and social conflicts are becoming more and more complex and sinister. The records of good and evil, destructive power and constructive power are becoming more and more blurred, and his plays are becoming ambiguous. His plays use moral, social and political issues to create divine dramas in the form of fables or satires. The dialogue is sharp and profound, the characters become richer, often exaggerated to the point of being funny, and an ending is needed-the atmosphere of the play has warmed up. Its vitality is no less than its early works-on the contrary, the elements of satire, humor, grotesque and comedy, as well as the production of myths and fables, are vivid. Soyinka's application of African mythology materials and European literature training is very independent. He said that he used myth as the "artistic matrix" of his creation. Therefore, this is not a question of the reappearance of folk traditions, nor a question of the reappearance of exotic places, but an independent and cooperative work. The combination of myth, tradition and ceremony became the nutrition of his creation, not the clothes he wore at the masquerade ball.
He called his extensive dabbling and literary consciousness a kind of "selective eclecticism"-that is, purposeful independent choice. In his later plays, it is particularly worth mentioning that Death and the King's Groom is a compelling and truly convincing work, full of many thoughts and meanings, poetic, ironic, surprising, cruel and greedy. On the surface, it is the conflict between western moral customs and African cultural traditions. Its theme revolves around a ceremony or the sacrifice of the sacrifice. This drama deeply discusses the human condition and the God condition, so it can't be simply regarded as telling us the disharmony between different civilizations. Soyinka himself prefers to regard it as a mysterious drama and religious drama depicting fate. It involves people's self-condition and self-realization, the mythical contract of life and death, and the future prospect.