Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:15:23.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Africanizing classical European playwrights (Shakespeare and Molière)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2018

Maëline Le Lay
Maëline Le Lay*
Affiliation:
CNRS / IFRA, Nairobi, Kenya
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyses Shakespeare and Molière's enduring appeal in various African countries and the diversity of their plays’ adaptations. The starting point is the discrepancy between the two playwrights, Shakespeare in Africa being an artistic phenomenon (a controversial one in some quarters), while the adaptation of Molière remains mainly the domain of school curricula. This article will first provide a historical overview of activities related to the introduction of Shakespeare and Molière's works in Africa. Second, it will set out to analyse the varied adaptation and “Africanization” of both playwrights’ work. It will shed light on the political and scholarly disputes over the incorporation of these authors in school curricula after independence and examine the ways in which these classical European texts were domesticated in Africa.

Keywords

TheatreAdaptation and translationClassical playsShakespeareMolièreColonial education policies
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 81 , Special Issue 3: Translating African Thought and Literature , October 2018 , pp. 493 - 512
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Initially written in English, this article was corrected by researcher, lecturer and French to English translator, Melissa Thackway. I would also like to thank Marie-Aude Fouéré for her very informed reading of this article, as well as Léonor Delaunay, Omar Fertat, Étienne Smith, Céline Labrune-Badiane, and Tristan Leperlier for having provided me with various helpful documents and materials.

References

Akissi Boutin, Béatrice and Guessan Kouadio, Jérémie N’. 2015. “Le nouchi, c'est notre créole en quelque sorte, qui est parlé par presque toute la Côte-d'Ivoire”, in Blumenthal, Peter (ed.), Dynamique des français africains: entre le culturel et le linguistique. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 251–71.Google Scholar
Banham, Martin (ed.). 2008 [2004]. A History of Theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Béart, Charles. 1960. Recherche des éléments d'une sociologie des Peuples Africains à partir de leurs jeux. (Enquêtes et études.) Paris: Présence africaine.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi. 1984. “Of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of colonial discourse”, October 28, 125–33.Google Scholar
Chesaina, Ciarunji and Mwangi, Evan. 2008. “Kenya”, in Banham, Martin (ed.), A History of Theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 206–32.Google Scholar
Collu, Roberta and Doyon, Raphaëlle. 2013. La Matrice religieuse de Jacques Copeau, une lecture anthropologique du fonctionnement de la communauté des Copiaus (1924–1929). halshs-00981265: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00981265Google Scholar
Conteh-Morgan, John. 2008. “Francophone Africa”, in Banham, Martin (ed.), History of Theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 85–137.Google Scholar
Dahmane, Hadj. 2012. “Molière dans le théâtre algérien”, Revue Annales du Patrimoine, Université de Mostaganem 12: 3–44.Google Scholar
Dedieu, Jean-Philippe. 2012. La Parole immigrée. Les migrants africains dans l'espace public en France (1960–1995). (Pouvoirs de Persuasion, 8.) Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Desai, Ashwin (ed.). 2014. Reading Revolution. Shakespeare on Robben Island. Chicago: Haymarket Books.Google Scholar
Devji, Faisal Fatehali. 2000. “Subject to translation: Shakespeare, Swahili, Socialism”, Postcolonial Studies 3/2, 181–9.Google Scholar
Fabian, Johannes. 1986. Language and Colonial Power. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Felman, Shoshana. 1980. Le Scandale du corps parlant. Don Juan ou la séduction en deux langues. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Fertat, Omar. 2004. “Le théâtre marocain, de la traduction à l’écriture”, in Mathieu-Job, Martine (ed.), L'entredire francophone. Pessac: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 185–205.Google Scholar
Fertat, Omar. 2013a. “Molière, un auteur arabe?”, Horizons/Théâtre, n°3, “L'adaptation, d'un théâtre à l'autre”. Pessac: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 86–106.Google Scholar
Fertat, Omar. 2013b. Le Théâtre marocain à l’épreuve du texte étranger. Traduction, adaptation, nouvelle dramaturgie. Bordeaux: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux.Google Scholar
Gordon, Colette. 2013. “Shakespeare's African Nostos. Township nostalgia and South African performance at sea”, “Shakespeare in and out of Africa”, African Theatre, 12. Oxford: James Currey, 28–47.Google Scholar
Hahn, Matthew. 2017. The Robben Island Shakespeare. London: Bloomsbury Methuen.Google Scholar
Hardwick, Lorna and Gillepsie, Carol (eds). 2007. Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hardy, Georges. 1913. L’Éducation africaine, n°6, juin, 106.Google Scholar
Jadot, Joseph-Marie. 1959. Les Écrivains du Congo-Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. Brussels: Académie Royale des Sciences coloniales.Google Scholar
Jézéquel, Jean-Hervé. 1999. “Le théâtre des instituteurs africains en AOF: pratique socio-culturelle et vecteur de cristallisation des nouvelles identités”, in Goerg, Odile (ed.), Fêtes urbaines en Afrique. Espaces, identités et pouvoirs. (Hommes et sociétés.) Paris: Karthala, 181–200.Google Scholar
Kalunga Mwela-Ubi, Marcel. 2013. Tamthilia Mbili za Kifaranza [Deux pièces de théâtre en français]: Michezo ya Mfalme [Le Roi s'amuse], Victor Hugo na Kanuni kwa Kuishi Maisha ya Kisaa [Les règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne], Jean-Luc Lagarce. Dar-es-Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota.Google Scholar
Le Lay, Maëline. 2014.‟La parole construit le pays”. Théâtre, langues et didactisme au Katanga. Paris: Honoré Champion.Google Scholar
Mazrui, Ali. 1967. “Shakespeare in African political thought”, in The Anglo-African Commonwealth. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 112.Google Scholar
Mazrui, M. Alamin. 1996. “Shakespeare in Africa: between English and Swahili literature”, Research in African Literatures 27/1, 64–79.Google Scholar
Mazrui, M. Alamin. 2016. Cultural Politics in Translation. East Africa in a Global Context. (Routledge Advances in Translation Studies.) New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mazrui, A. Ali. 1990. “On poet-presidents and philosopher-kings”, Research in African Literatures 21, “Dictatorship and Oppression”, 13–19.Google Scholar
Mbaye, Alioune. 2004. “L'autre théâtre historique de l’époque coloniale: Le ‘Chaka’ de Senghor”, Éthiopiques. Revue négro-africaine de littérature et de philosophie 72: http://ethiopiques.refer.sn/spip.php?page=imprimer-article&id_article=84.Google Scholar
Molony, T. 2014. Nyerere. The Early Years. Oxford: James Currey, 54.Google Scholar
Mouralis, Bernard. 1971. “Le théâtre de William Ponty”, in Kotchy, Barthéléméy (ed.), Le Théâtre négro-africain. Actes du Colloque d'Abidjan 1970. Paris: Présence africaine.Google Scholar
Mouralis, Bernard. 1986. “William Ponty drama”, in Gérard, Albert (ed.), European Language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa. Budapest: Akadémiai Kadó, 130–40.Google Scholar
Mouralis, Bernard. 1999. République et colonies. Entre mémoire et histoire. (Situations et perspectives.) Paris: Présence africaine.Google Scholar
Muikilu Ndaye, Antoine. 2013. “Le théâtre en République démocratique du Congo de 1905 à 1960. Des initiatives missionnaires aux appropriations locales. Matériaux pour une histoire culturelle”, PhD dissertation in Theology. Université de Lorraine de Metz/Université Catholique du Congo (Kinshasa).Google Scholar
Ngugi wa Thiong'o. 1986. Decolonizing the Mind. The Politics of Language in African Literature. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Osofisan, Femi. 2013. “Shakespeare, Africa and the Globe Olympiad”, in Shakespeare In and Out of Africa. African Theatre 12. Oxford: James Currey, 1–12.Google Scholar
Plastow, Jane. 2013. “Introduction”, in Shakespeare In and Out of Africa. African Theatre, 12. Oxford: James Currey, pp. x–xiv.Google Scholar
Ringel, Pierre. 1950. Molière en Afrique noire, ou le journal de 4 comédiens. Lettre-préface de Louis Jouvet. Paris: Éditions du Livre français.Google Scholar
Queffélec, Ambroise. 2007. “Les parlers mixtes en Afrique francophone subsaharienne”, Le Français en Afrique 22. Nice: ILF – CNRS, pp. 276–91.Google Scholar
Romain, Maryline. 2005. Léon Chancerel. Portrait d'un réformateur du théâtre français (1886–1965). Préface de Robert Abirached. (Série Études.) Lausanne: L’Âge d'homme.Google Scholar
Saddiki, Tayeb. 1974. “Molière dans le monde arabe”, Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre, 101–02.Google Scholar
Schalkwyk, David. 2013. Hamlet's Dreams: The Robben Island Shakespeare. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Senghor, Sédar Léopold. 1988. Ce que je crois. Négritude, Francité et civilisation de l'universel. Paris: Grasset.Google Scholar
Smith, Étienne and Céline, Labrune-Badiane. 2018. Les Hussards noirs de la colonie. Instituteurs africains et “petites patries” en AOF (1913–1960). Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Suchet, Myriam. 2014. “Le québécois: d'une langue identitaire à un imaginaire hétérolingue (Macbeth de Michel Garneau, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi de Larry Tremblay et Yukonstyle de Sarah Berthiaume)”, Quaderna, Revue Transdisciplinaire et Multilingue 2, 1–12Google Scholar
Traoré, Bakary. 1958. Le théâtre négro-africain et ses fonctions sociales. Paris: Présence africaine.Google Scholar
Warner, Gary. 1976. “Éducation coloniale et genèse du théâtre africain d'expression française”, Présence africaine, Nouvelle série, 97, “Science politique”, 93–116.Google Scholar
Warner, Tobias. 2016. “Para-literary ethnography and colonial self-writing: the student notebooks of the William Ponty School”, Research in African Literatures 47/1, 1–20.Google Scholar
Gregory, William. 2010. “Jouabilité: un concept indéfinissable, incontournable … traduisible ou intraduisible?”, Traduire [En ligne], 222. URL: http://traduire.revues.org/433 (15 November 2017).Google Scholar
Wilson-Lee, Edward. 2016. Shakespeare in Swahililand. The Adventures of the Ever-Living Poet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zabus, Chantal. 2007. The African Palimpsest. Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, second edition.Google Scholar