Abstract

Wole Soyinka's sonnet "Hamlet" is first situated in the historical and biographical circumstances under which it was generated. A close reading of the text follows with interpretations carried out on two levels: transtextually with Shakespeare's play Hamlet and subtextually with Soyinka's disguised "messages" written during solitary confinement in a Nigerian prison. Prose writings by Soyinka are referred to in support of my subtextual de-coding of the poem. A theoretical framework for the reading is also postulated based on a schema of intersecting vertical and horizontal compositional trajectories. With the close reading played out, consideration is given to the appropriateness of Shakespeare's tragedy as archetypal template for Soyinka's sonnet. It is concluded that while there is neither generic compatibility nor any psychological correspondence between Shakespeare's protagonist and Soyinka's speaker, scrutiny of the political state of Denmark in the play, and of the condition of the Nigerian body politic at the time the prison poem was written, does point to similar political conjunctures.

pdf

Share