Orisa-Shakespeare: A study of Shakespeare Adaptations Inspired by the Yoruba Tradition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Olalekan Is’haq Balogun

<p>This thesis combines creative practice with critical analysis to intervene in the field of post-colonial Shakespeare where, for over a generation, the process of adaptation has been presented as one of the main strategies by which Shakespeare’s ambiguous legacy in successor cultures can be both confronted and manipulated. Scholars often use the term “writing back” to designate a set of adaptations which challenge the cultural capital that Shakespeare privileges. By linking Yoruba spirituality in its political and cultural terms to the wider field of the relation between Africa, African writers and theatre makers and Shakespeare, the thesis proposes a new sub-field or genre of adaptations, “Orisa-Shakespeare,” rooted in Yoruba traditions. The thesis argues that, written in Nigeria and the Yoruba global diaspora, this set of adaptations are not necessarily challenging the Shakespeare canon but addressing their own societies, thus “writing forward.” The thesis examines the cultural and political significance of this bourgeoning body of adaptations of Shakespeare through the lens of Yoruba epistemology and its aesthetic principles.  The thesis is broadly divided into two parts: an exegesis of selected adaptations of Shakespeare as case studies of post-colonial works that reflect and integrate Yoruba creative and performative idioms and translate them into dramaturgy; and an original play, Emi Caesar! in which core elements of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are transplanted into the complex, violent world of Yoruba politics of the mid-19th century, as a parable for contemporary Nigeria politics where factionalism (specifically tribal/ethnic bigotry) works against the integrity and security of the society.  In the context that the thesis proposes, the present has constant recourse to the past, especially the ancestors, and engages in rituals which create ongoing, living links between human beings and the realm of the Yoruba Gods (Orisa).The outcomes are the documentation of a uniquely Yoruba theory of literary creativity, a new play based on Julius Caesar, and an original contribution to the broad field of postcolonial (Shakespeare) adaptations scholarship.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Olalekan Is’haq Balogun

<p>This thesis combines creative practice with critical analysis to intervene in the field of post-colonial Shakespeare where, for over a generation, the process of adaptation has been presented as one of the main strategies by which Shakespeare’s ambiguous legacy in successor cultures can be both confronted and manipulated. Scholars often use the term “writing back” to designate a set of adaptations which challenge the cultural capital that Shakespeare privileges. By linking Yoruba spirituality in its political and cultural terms to the wider field of the relation between Africa, African writers and theatre makers and Shakespeare, the thesis proposes a new sub-field or genre of adaptations, “Orisa-Shakespeare,” rooted in Yoruba traditions. The thesis argues that, written in Nigeria and the Yoruba global diaspora, this set of adaptations are not necessarily challenging the Shakespeare canon but addressing their own societies, thus “writing forward.” The thesis examines the cultural and political significance of this bourgeoning body of adaptations of Shakespeare through the lens of Yoruba epistemology and its aesthetic principles.  The thesis is broadly divided into two parts: an exegesis of selected adaptations of Shakespeare as case studies of post-colonial works that reflect and integrate Yoruba creative and performative idioms and translate them into dramaturgy; and an original play, Emi Caesar! in which core elements of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are transplanted into the complex, violent world of Yoruba politics of the mid-19th century, as a parable for contemporary Nigeria politics where factionalism (specifically tribal/ethnic bigotry) works against the integrity and security of the society.  In the context that the thesis proposes, the present has constant recourse to the past, especially the ancestors, and engages in rituals which create ongoing, living links between human beings and the realm of the Yoruba Gods (Orisa).The outcomes are the documentation of a uniquely Yoruba theory of literary creativity, a new play based on Julius Caesar, and an original contribution to the broad field of postcolonial (Shakespeare) adaptations scholarship.</p>


Author(s):  
Volker Scheid

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ae Lee

To displace a character in time is to depict a character who becomes acutely conscious of his or her status as other, as she or he strives to comprehend and interact with a culture whose mentality is both familiar and different in obvious and subtle ways. Two main types of time travel pose a philosophical distinction between visiting the past with knowledge of the future and trying to inhabit the future with past cultural knowledge, but in either case the unpredictable impact a time traveller may have on another society is always a prominent theme. At the core of Japanese time travel narratives is a contrast between self-interested and eudaimonic life styles as these are reflected by the time traveller's activities. Eudaimonia is a ‘flourishing life’, a life focused on what is valuable for human beings and the grounding of that value in altruistic concern for others. In a study of multimodal narratives belonging to two sets – adaptations of Tsutsui Yasutaka's young adult novella The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Yamazaki Mari's manga series Thermae Romae – this article examines how time travel narratives in anime and live action film affirm that eudaimonic living is always a core value to be nurtured.


Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon

It's a commonplace occurrence that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. But this book argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding. The book makes the case that the sources of democratic legitimacy have shifted and multiplied over the past thirty years and that we need to comprehend and make better use of these new sources of legitimacy in order to strengthen our political self-belief and commitment to democracy. Drawing on examples from France and the United States, the book notes that there has been a major expansion of independent commissions, NGOs, regulatory authorities, and watchdogs in recent decades. At the same time, constitutional courts have become more willing and able to challenge legislatures. These institutional developments, which serve the democratic values of impartiality and reflexivity, have been accompanied by a new attentiveness to what the book calls the value of proximity, as governing structures have sought to find new spaces for minorities, the particular, and the local. To improve our democracies, we need to use these new sources of legitimacy more effectively and we need to incorporate them into our accounts of democratic government. This book is an original contribution to the vigorous international debate about democratic authority and legitimacy.


GIS Business ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Gunjan Sharma ◽  
Tarika Singh ◽  
Suvijna Awasthi

In the midst of increasing globalization, the past two decades have observed huge inflow of outside capital in the shape of direct and portfolio investment. The increase in capital mobility is due to contact between the different economies across the globe. The growing liberalization in the capital market leads to the growth of various financial products and services. Over the past decade, the Indian capital market has witnessed numerous changes in the direction of developing the capital markets more robust. With the growing Indian economy, the larger inflow of funds has been fetched into the capital markets. The government is continuously working on investor’s education in order to increase retail participation in the Indian stock market. The habits of the risk-averse middle class have been changing where these investors started participating in the Indian stock market. It is an explored fact that human beings are irrational and considering this fact becomes imperative to investigate factors that influence the trading decisions. In this research, ‘an attempt has been made to investigate various factors that affect the individual trading decision’. The data has been collected from various stockbroking firms and from clients of those stockbroking firms their opinions were recorded by means of a questionnaire. Data collected through the structured questionnaire, 33 questions were prepared which was given to the 330 respondents on the basis of convenience sampling out of which 220 individuals filled questionnaire, the total of 200 questionnaires was included in the study after eliminating the incomplete questionnaire. Various factors are being explored from the literature and then with the help of factor analysis some of the most influential factors have been explored. Factors like overconfidence, optimism, cognitive bias, herd behavior, advisory effect, and idealism are the factors which influenced the trading decision of the investors the most. Such kind of a study is contributing in the area of behavioral finance as a trading decision is an important aspect while investing in the stock market. And this kind of study would be helping and assisting financial advisors to strategies for their clients in making the right allocation and also the policy maker and market regulators to come up with better reforms for the Indian stock markets.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Sideri

The Caucasus was a zone of encounters for centuries, generating images of regional cosmopolitanism in the past. This vision creates expectations for the present, when it is included in the wider discussion about the meanings of cosmopolitanism today, its relation to modern geopolitics, and issues of social and political co-existence and recognition. This essay focuses on two different photographs that belong to different Greek families in Georgia. These photographs represent two different historical experiences of migration and pinpoint different understandings of cosmopolitanism. However, they both seem to stem from specific discourses about diasporas and their cosmopolitan character. The role of language in the construction of these discourses is fundamental. The essay compares photographic representations of the 'Greek Diaspora' in order to trace the perceptions of cosmopolitanism they generate, the cultural capital they carry, and its outcome in relation to Greek diaspora politics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit Bhatia ◽  
Amit Sharma ◽  
Raj Kumar Narang ◽  
Ravindra K. Rawal

: Cancer is one of the most serious health concerns in 21st century whose prevalence is beyond boundaries and can affect any organ of human beings. The conventional chemotherapeutic treatment strategies lack specificity to tumours and are associated with toxic effects on immune system and other organ systems. In the past decades, there has been a continuous progress in the development of smart nanocarrier systems for target specific delivery of drugs against variety of tumours including intracellular gene-specific targeting. These nanocarriers are able to recognize the tumour cells and deliver the therapeutic agent in fixed proportions causing no or very less harm to healthy cells. Nanosystems have modified physicochemical properties, improved bioavailability and long retention in blood which enhances their potency. A huge number of nanocarrier based formulations have been developed and are in clinical trials. Nanocarrier systems include polymeric micelles, liposomes, dendrimers, carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, etc. Recent advancements in nanocarrier systems include mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), metal organic frame works and quantum dots. In the present review, various nanocarrier based drug delivery systems along with their applications in the management of cancer have been described with special emphasis on MSNs.


SUHUF ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Novita Siswayanti

The stories in Qur'an are Allah’s decrees which convey more beau-tiful values beyond any religious text ever written. It is the holiest scripture and is written  in a wonderful, understandable, and attract-ive language humbly conveying a vast amount of information about life and events that happened in the past. It’s aim is to be an object of reflection for human beings living in this age and the future. Even more so, the stories in Al-Qur'an also entail an educative function providing learning materials,  and teaching methods, regarding the transformative power of Islam and the internalization of true religious values.


Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ

Help towards understanding the human and religious functions of tradition comes from such sociologists as Peter Berger, Anthony Giddens, and Edward Shils. Tradition by Shils continues to illuminate how, although human beings modify inherited beliefs and change traditional patterns of behaviour, the new always incorporates something of the past. Shils takes a global view of tradition; it embodies everything individuals inherit when born into the world. It is through tradition that new members of society begin to identify themselves. The bearers of tradition may be not only official but also ‘learned’ and ‘ordinary’. Shils dedicates many further pages to changes in traditions and the forces leading to these changes. What sociologists like Giddens say about globalization also affects theological reflection on tradition. Surprisingly, the very few theologians who have published on tradition have ignored the sociologists.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Sujit Sivasundaram

AbstractThe Pacific has often been invisible in global histories written in the UK. Yet it has consistently been a site for contemplating the past and the future, even among Britons cast on its shores. In this lecture, I reconsider a critical moment of globalisation and empire, the ‘age of revolutions’ at the end of the eighteenth century and the start of the nineteenth century, by journeying with European voyagers to the Pacific Ocean. The lecture will point to what this age meant for Pacific islanders, in social, political and cultural terms. It works with a definition of the Pacific's age of revolutions as a surge of indigeneity met by a counter-revolutionary imperialism. What was involved in undertaking a European voyage changed in this era, even as one important expedition was interrupted by news from revolutionary Europe. Yet more fundamentally vocabularies and practices of monarchy were consolidated by islanders across the Pacific. This was followed by the outworkings of counter-revolutionary imperialism through agreements of alliance and alleged cessation. Such an argument allows me, for instance, to place the 1806 wreck of the Port-au-Prince within the Pacific's age of revolutions. This was an English ship used to raid French and Spanish targets in the Pacific, but which was stripped of its guns, iron, gunpowder and carronades by Tongans. To chart the trajectory from revolution and islander agency on to violence and empire is to appreciate the unsettled paths that gave rise to our modern world. This view foregrounds people who inhabited and travelled through the earth's oceanic frontiers. It is a global history from a specific place in the oceanic south, on the opposite side of the planet to Europe.


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