The African Worldview in Kateb Yacine’s Le cadavre encerclé (1954) and Les ancêtres redoublent de férocité (1959)

Abstract

This paper revisits Kateb Yacine’s Le cadavre encerclé (The Encercled Cadaver, 1954) and Les ancêtres redoublent de férocité (The Ancestors, 1959) by suggesting a new direction for a reading, which helps to explain many invisible areas in the two plays. This postcolonial approach may perforce the reverse of the reviews that stress the author’s borrowing and imitation of the Western theatrical models. It is a reading, which is based on the theoretical scheme, which was suggested by Wole Soyinka in his book entitled Myth, Literature and the African World (1976).