Blood :: essays papers

Blood Parentheses of blood Dramas are classified into four sub-fields: tragedies, comedies, melo-dramas, and satires. Each sub-field has characteristics, which makes it identifiable. It is common to find any combination of the sub-fields within a play. To classify drama one must look at the more prominent theme. This paper is focusing on the drama â€Å"Parentheses of blood†, by playwright Sony Labou Tansi. Tansi was born in Congo in 1947. Of his fifteen plays most were published in French. In 1986 his work was commissioned for English translation. Tansi has lived through Africas period of colonialism and the dictorial governments that followed. Congo was under French colonial rule through his adolescent years. It went through periods of military dictatorship 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 â€Å"Parentheses of blood.† This play is an African Drama. Three-dimensional characters are common in African dramas, this is necessary 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 role within the play. A final identifying source is the presence of song and dance. The characters in Tansi’s play were unquestionably three-dimensional. They all had distinct personalities and body, an essential for making the drama believable. How can the absence of the three remaining elements of African drama be explained? Tansi’s work was done in the post-colonial period. Because of French influence African song and dance became less prominent. It was not totally wiped out, but 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 way Tansi saw life in Africa from his own point of view. Tansi did not choose 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.