Beckettian dramatic Features in The Swamp Dwellers.

Prepared by - Bathavar VirajeeCourse: - M.A. English

Semester: -4Enrolment no: - PG15101001

Submitted to: - Smt. S.B.Gardi Dept. of English MKBU

Email id: - bathvarvirji@gmail.comPaper no 14 : - The African Literature.

Index

• Introduction »• Beckettian dramatic Features »• Conclusion »

Introduction• The Swamp Dwellers:• The Swamp Dwellers is play

written by Wole Soyinka.• Traditional and modern play.• Written in 1957.• Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian

playwright and poet.• He was awarded the 1986 Nobel

prise in literature.

»

Beckettian dramatic Features • Waiting without hope. »• Absurdity.• Hopelessness in characters »• Absence of god.• Characters going into their individual word. »• Characters presented without much history. »• Disillusionment »• Meaninglessness of life

»

Waiting without hope.• Alu and Makuri Waiting for Awuchike Makuri has lost his hopes from Awuchike• Awuchike is not appear in the play • So its Waiting without hope.

Absurdity.• Alu : “can you see him”• Makuri: “see who?” »

Absence of god• There is absence of god in the play.• But we find that character of Kadiye is priest of Serpent

religion.• Alu and Makuri have faith in that..

Hopelessness in characters.• Alu and Makruri are waiting for Awuchike • But there is no hope.• All chararacters are having hopelessness

»

Characters going into their individual word

• All characters have their individual world in the play.

• Beggar • Igwazu • Alu and Makuri• Kadiye

»

Meaninglessness of life.• Struggling between tradition and modernity.• Question of survival

• Disillusionment • Face off with reality of life and endless waiting.• Alu and Makuri• Igwezu’s escapism• Beggar’s philosophy

»

Characters presented without much history.

• There is not any information about any character.• Examples: 1. The Birthday party Harold Pinter 2. Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett.

»

Conclusion:

• There are many Beckettian features in the play “The Swamp Dwellers” by Soyinka. Igwezu is presented as a Beckettian hero. So we can considered the play Swamp dwellers as absurd play with existential crises.

Bibliography

• Soyinka, Wole. "The Swamp Dwellers." Soyinka, Wole. The Swamp Dwellers. 1958.

• Zala,Heenaba. Slideshare. <https://www.slideshare.net/heenabazala3/the-swamp-dweller>

Thank you