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La délinquance idéologique: Sony labou tansi and the political love story of Romeo and Juliet
Author(s)
Date Issued
2016
ISSN
2308-5460
Citation
International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 2016, vol. 4(4), pp. 164-171.
URI
Type
Peer Reviewed Journal Article
Abstract
The article discusses an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, (La Résurrection
Rouge et Blanche de Romeo et Juliette- 'The Red and White Revival of Romeo and Juliet') by the Congolese writer Sony Labou Tansi. It examines the consequences of a focus on the political frame of the narrative. Sony's version is an indictment of a monstrous and hyper-violent political system in which the only choice left is the manner of one’s death. Sony uses the play as a means to interrogate a society that focuses on the political fetishization of violent dictatorships and nihilistic choices. With a radical shift in focus, Sony’s work also requires the audience / reader to consider the necessity of theatre and, by extension, the power under which it operates. Sony’s language in this adaptation gives the story of Romeo and Juliet, a postcolonial framework as well as an urgent political message. The analysis concludes that the adaptation presents the conventional love story as a political tragedy of the post-colonial condition.
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