Blood :: essays papers

BloodParentheses of rootage Dramas are classified into four sub-fields tragedies, comedies, melo- dramatic plays, and satires. Each sub-field has characteristics, which makes it identifiable. It is common to find either combination of the sub-fields within a flirt. To classify drama one mustiness look at the more prominent theme. This paper is focusing on the drama Parentheses of blood, by playwright Sony Labou Tansi. Tansi was born in congou tea in 1947. Of his fifteen plays most were published in cut. In 1986 his massage was commissioned for English translation. Tansi has lived through and through Africas extent of colonialism and the dictorial governments that followed. congo was under French colonial rule through his adolescent years. It went through periods of military despotism before democratization. Tansi was a member of the opposing party in Congo and won himself a seat in the National assembly in 1993, just two years before his death. Like many others in post-colonial Africa, Tansi felt oppressed and untrusting of government, this is clearly evident in Parentheses of blood. This play is an African Drama. Three-dimensional characters are common in African dramas, this is needed in order to make the drama believable. Another theme of African plays is the presence of a storteller. This is common because many plays have been passed down through generations by word. A third distinguishing feature is an audience that has an active subprogram within the play. A final identifying source is the presence of song and trip the light fantastic. The characters in Tansis play were unquestionably three-dimensional. They all had distinct personalities and body, an essential for devising the drama believable. How can the absence of the three remaining elements of African drama be explained? Tansis work was done in the post-colonial period. Because of French play African song and dance became less prominent. It was not totally wiped ou t, alone because of French policy many once common tribal songs and dance became less common among Africans. Writing in a modern period Tansi had no need for a storyteller. This play is a depiction of the means Tansi saw life in Africa from his own point of view. Tansi did not claim to have an active audience. Not all African dramas had this characteristic, but this could be another consequence of the transition to the post-modern literature of Africa.