Ecocritical Consciousness In Wole Soyinka’s Play A Dance Of The Forests

Abstract

The field of ecocritical studies has gained prominence in the present scenario to understand the changes evolving in the environmental surroundings. Nature has been dominated by mankind for ages and it has called for the attention towards ecological cataclysm such as pollution , deforestation , extinction of animals, climate change and others. This paper tries to explore the relationship between man and nature through ecocritical lens. Soyinka’s establishment of Yoruba culture shows the praxis of eco-friendly attitude since the ancestral times of Africa which he intends specifically to address the cultural interaction and brings a sense of search for the identity in the ecological space. The paper points at the pessimistic view of the future as it addresses a sense of continuous anthropocentric attitude of man towards nature which Soyinka traces from the past to the present while weaving an alarm of need for future sustainability. It attempts to draw a parallel comparison between the philosophy of Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge in proximity to the play that shows the similar ideas on organic oneness where man and nature are one as a whole. The call for the need of optimistic future is drawn upon such conscious writing to reflect back and reassess the problems.