In the following essay, Adu-Gyamfi evaluates Soyinka's use of African oral traditions in Ogun Abibiman, noting that the collection's vocabulary “reflects a highly conscious sense of African oral poetics.”

In the following review, Rieff chronicles recent Nigerian history and discusses Soyinka's outlook in The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis toward the repressive Nigerian regime and the relative indifference of the West.

In the following essay, Wright explores the major themes of Soyinka's later “shotgun” satires, focusing on the political elements in such plays as A Play of Giants and Requiem for a Futurologist.

In the following essay, Nouryeh explores how The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite, Soyinka's adaptation of the play by Euripides, significantly alters the role that gender politics played in the original text and concludes that Soyinka's version acts as “problematized example of a decolonized canonical work.”

In the following essay, Hogan explores the ethical and mythic aspects of Soyinka's plays, focusing on his early drama The Swamp Dwellers.

In the following essay, Jacobs provides a critical overview of Soyinka's life and work, praising Soyinka's “comprehensive genius” and asserting that he regards Soyinka as one of the greatest living writers.

In the following interview, Soyinka discusses multiculturalism, his literary and political interests, and the future of Nigeria.

In the following essay, Roy and Kirpal discuss how the male characters in The Interpreters and Season of Anomy function as traditional African male archetypes.

In the following essay, Gates explores Soyinka's unique and influential position in African literature, culture, and politics, arguing that Soyinka “bears a relation to the poetics of Africa akin to that which Shakespeare bore to England.”

In the following essay, Thomson surveys Soyinka's political poetry in such works as A Shuttle in the Crypt, asserting that “his is a poetry of such personal courage and emotion that one can hardly accuse it of being merely political, yet it is deeply concerned with protest and the reclamation of cultural ground.”

In the following review, Hope examines how Ìsarà: A Voyage around Essay represents a diverse range of literary genres, including memoirs, fairy tales, moral fables, and political studies.

Wole Soyinka's writing often seems like a juggling act. He can keep any number of plates—and valuable plates, at that—spinning in the air all at the same time. He is able to handle many themes simultaneously without ever endangering the reality of his characters. His people are never ciphers or symbols, always persons speaking in their own voices. He is a volatile writer, and he achieves in his work an almost unbelievable amount of vitality. He is well known as a poet, and he has writte...

In the following review of The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness, Boyle investigates the importance of symbolism in Soyinka's work, Soyinka's perception of the relationship between different African groups, and Soyinka's attitude toward South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In the following review, White discusses the recurring political motifs in Soyinka's essays and dramas, citing The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis and Kongi's Harvest as prime examples.

In the following essay, Ramachandran examines stylistic aspects of The Lion and the Jewel, noting the effect of the trickster figure and ritual dance on the structure of the play.

In the following review, Mutua argues that The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis is a powerful nonfiction account of political repression in contemporary Nigeria and Soyinka's “most anguished polemic to date.”

In the following review, Berger asserts that, despite some stylistic flaws, The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis is both an “useful and moving” work.

In the following review, Caute delineates the role of memory in The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness.

In the following review, O'Brien examines how Soyinka balances comedy and tragedy in The Beatification of Area Boy.

In the following review, Maja-Pearce praises Soyinka's honesty and insight in Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: A Memoir, 1946-65, noting that the work “is an act of faith in the possibilities of the future, written with the authority of one who has experienced the worst of those years.”

In the following review, Vaughan argues that The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis is both a courageous critique of the Nigerian government as well as a celebration of the spirit of the Nigerian people.

In the following review, Howe examines the parallels between The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness and Antjie Krog's Country of My Skull.

[Drama] deals with the basic human emotions and predicaments in a social context, both in the interaction of several characters on the stage, and in the even more important interaction between the stage and the audience. The basic human emotions are still involved, but they are expressed through social conventions which may be totally different from one society to another. (p. 33) This is not to say that universal, or almost universal, drama is wholly impossible. There may, after all, be social conventions ...

In the following favorable review of The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis, Onadipe maintains that “Soyinka's latest words on Nigeria's enduring political problems will be no less controversial and thought-provoking than any of his earlier literary works.”

In the following review, Gibbs commends the insight and wit in Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: A Memoir, 1946-65.

In the following review, Dasenbrock argues that the poems in Mandela's Earth and Other Poems are too responsive to criticism of his earlier poetry and, as a result, the collection seem inauthentic.

In the following review, Dasenbrock explores the parallels between Aké: The Years of Childhood—the memoir of Soyinka's youth—and Ìsarà: A Voyage around Essay—the biography of Soyinka's father.

In the following review, Gibbs commends the “musical elements” in The Beatification of Area Boy but asserts that the play's conclusion is its “weakest point.”

In the following review, Okome identifies From Zia with Love as one of Soyinka's “power plays,” praising the work and commenting that Soyinka has “produced a living text, beautifully structured around the danse macabre and the drama of Nigeria's recent past.”

In the following negative review, Gibbs identifies a series of inaccuracies in The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness and faults the collection for its “carelessness.”

In the following review, Nazareth contends that Soyinka presents a chilling portrayal of contemporary Nigerian politics in The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis.

[Soyinka] is remembered in Nigeria with awe, both for a political boldness that landed him in prison and for a commanding intellect that is manifest in every genre he tackles. "Myth, Literature and the African World" … displays him as a critic and lecturer…. Soyinka discusses material—Yoruba myths and ritual dramas, plays by Afro-Brazilians as well as by Nigerians, postwar African novels and poetry good and bad—not within the usual province of the educated Westerner...

In the following review, Thorpe offers a positive assessment of Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture, calling the work “a rare, vigorous, and cogent writer's apologia.”

Mr. Soyinka is a fluent, funny and angry West African, but he has not yet begun to understand how to work out a verse or to organise a play…. Mr. Soyinka's verse was mainly in the cata-Logue manner with clumsy pamphleteering phrases ('untransmuted emotion,' 'venery,' 'chillun worse than their sires') leading into unusual and unprecise images ('the moon bounds like a fried egg in oil'). The humour was occasionally attractively raw and toug...