NAME: ONGORO 0 ABRAHAM

REG NO: ED/6027/2018

SCHOOL: EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT: LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND

LINGUISTICS
COURSE TITLE: THE PRACTICE OF CRITICAL THEORY

COURSE CODE: LIT 310

LECTURER: OUNO VICTOR

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 08/03/2021

 1.How does a maxist reading Wole Soyinka’s

Death and kings horseman

Illustrate the tragedy of the masses?

Maxism as a theory seeks to liberate critics from classism and give room for objective analysis
where writers are identified with the plight of the majority. This plight of the majority is what we
may refer to as the tragedy on the masses. Tragedy on the other hand refers to the reverse of the
fortune for the worst. Wole Soyinka is one of the writers who has been identified in his play
“death and the kings horseman.” This book clearly illustrates the tragedy of the masses as
discussed in the following paragraphs.

The racial segregation of Africans during colonialism is vividly portrayed in Wole Soyinka’s
death and the kings’ horseman. He creates characters Simon Pilkings and Jane Pilkings who
repeatedly insult Africans and show no respect for the Africans customs. They represent
prejudices at its worst. This is seen when Amusa enters and is horrified to see the Pilkingses in
fancy dress. At this point racial segregation is seen as Jane calls Africans pig pagans. This
segregation has been a tragedy of the masses since the colonial error and perhaps up to date.
Discussion about it may free the masses.

Soyinka also creates a character with highly placed personality who becomes corrupted by the
power he has over the masses. This character latter falls from honor and grace to shame. He gets
warned by the praise singers when he boast about the wonderful treatments he often gets from
women every time he comes to the market place. An idea comes to his mind, as a voyager, he
wants to travel light but Elesin bring unhappiness to the girl, to her wife to be and to the whole
community questioning those in power emancipate the masses.

Death and the kings’ horseman by Wole Soyinka also present the African cultures over the
colonial world in emancipating manner. Elesin Oba; the kings horseman is to commit a ritual
suicide to accompany the king the world of the dead. Failure to do so can only lead to chaos and
disorder according to the Yoruba culture. Pilkings, district officer and Jane Pilkings prejudices
this act and tries to prevent the suicide by imprisoning Elesin Oba. Olunde the Elesin’s son
returns from England and seeing the looming danger decides to save the situation by committing
suicide himself. Elisin Oba on seeing his son’s body also kills himself. This clearly shows the
tragedy through which masses undergo.

In conclusion, the plight of the majority is one of the major thematic concern which writers from
local, international and the whole world revolves their works around in relation to maxism.

1. Use Lacan’s psychoanalysis to demonstrate the liberating impact of

Waris Dirie’s desert flower.

Lacan’s psychoanalysis is a development of Sigmund Freud’s theory about the human mind
development. Jacques Lacan identifies the three parts of human mind as the symbolic, which is a
projection of who, one would want to become, the imaginary which is the desire to explore the
unknown and the real which relates to human actions to the real environment. Waris Dirie has
fully employed this theory in her work; the dessert flower to uncover her stages of growth and
development as discussed below;

The book recounts Waris Dirie harrowing story from her roots as a member of a nomadic family
and the unspeakable abuses he suffered as a child top her extraordinary rise to international fame,
first as a fashion model, then as an ambassador and advocates for women’s right and later as an
author.

Waris Dirie unconsciously accept to be a victim of female genital mutilation at the age of five
years, extremely painful procedure that usually causes lifelong damage to the reproductive organ
and that often result in fatal bleeding and infections. This defines the symbolic part of Lacan’s
theory as Waris follows the deeds of her older sister; Iman also being circumcised. She does not
understand the meaning of female genital mutilation but rather accept it out of ignorance. When
Dirie had acquired the imaginary or the conscious part of her mind, she starts to manipulate
things as she tries to escape from being married to a 60years old man. And manages to develop
an ambition of going to Mogdishu; the capital city of Somalia. She starts to be independent
despite the fact that her father was to receive five camels from the groom.

The journey to Mogadishu gets Waris into the part of human mind referred to as the real. This
relates human action to the real environment. In the book Dirie encounters a truck driver on her
way to Mogadishu who tries to rape her. She manage to survive the attack, but only after fighting
the trucker with her hands. This is when Dirie understands why so many women stay behind in
bad situations, rather than face the countless dangers of escaping. For her, she decided to take the
opposite root of life. When she finally arrived in Mogdishu, she stayed in her older sister’s house
for a while but later moved to other extended relatives who cared for her. This made Dirie to
invoke her first part of the psych; the persona as she did not want to offend anybody. She
therefore leaves Somali behind to settle in London; England with her uncle who got her a job at
the embassy. Things worked well for a while until her uncle’s term in the office ended and were
forced to return to Somali. This is when Dirie invoked the second part of her psych; the shadow
by hiding her documents like passport and identification card. She had already developed a
mission and was not ready to return to Somali with the rest of her relatives who eventually
accepts to let her stay in London. This opened a greatest opportunity for Waris.

After the departure of her uncle, Dirie now reconciled the animus stage of human developments
to ensure she becomes who she wants. She worked at M’C Donalds with keenness not to
encounter her early years experiences. She becomes extremely uncomfortable with the
photographer for the first time they met owing to a lifetime marked by sexual violence and
threats carried out by strange men. This led to delay of Dirie’s success as a model. The superego
or the animus part of human development according to Lacan enables Dirie to concur the long
painful siries of trials and hardship. She calls the photographer again who agrees to meet her. His
name is Terence Donovan- a famous fashion photographer who produces a number of music
videos such as Robert Palmer’s smash hit “addicted to love.”

It is through this friendship that Dirie be put on the cover of 1987 Pirelli calendar; an Italian
manufacturing company. This gave Dirie enough exposure and fame which led her into
modelling; a career which gives her money and stability. It also gives her a measure of status and
respect as a woman, something that would have eluded her forever would she continue to stay in
the dessert. He conscience or superego now demands her to perform the responsibility of
liberating girls and women who still suffer the weight of oppression and use her position and
platform to do all she can to end the crime of female genital mutilation. Ironically, a whole
decade after losing her job as a staffer for her uncle, the Somali ambassador, Dirie herself
becomes a UN ambassador committed to eradication of female genital mutilation, completing a
deeply circuitous route from world diplomacy to modelling and back again.
In conclusion, Lacan’s psychoanalysis reading of Waris Dirie “the dessert flower,” is sincerely a
true demonstration of liberating impact of women and girls, from human traditional slavery such
as female genital mutilation FGM, sexual harassment and early marriages. It is through this
Lacan’s theory that Waris Dirie manages to liberate herself and awake the man in her, reconcile
into the woman in her to determine herself.