ScholarWorks > Arts & Sciences > English > COMPDR > Vol. 27 (1993) > Iss. 3
The Politics of Ritual in Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides
Abstract
In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:
The title page of Wole Soyinka's adaptation announces a contradiction: The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite.1 Euripides' Bacchae is a play, not a rite. Transforming this classical text from one form of cultural phenomenon into another raises fascinating questions about plays, rites, and The Bacchae, but at the outset Soyinka has made an extravagant claim by labelling the text as Euripides' and then adding the new descriptive tag. This is only the first albeit the single most significant contradiction one encounters in grappling with Soyinka's radical remaking of ancient drama.
Recommended Citation
Baker-White, Robert
(1993)
"The Politics of Ritual in Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides,"
Comparative Drama: Vol. 27:
Iss.
3, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol27/iss3/7