Biodun Jeyifo

 

Curriculum Vitae:

EDUCATION.

Ph.D. New York University, 1975

M.A. New York University, 1973

B.A. English, University of Ibadan, 1970 (First Class Honors)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Professor of English, Department of English, Cornell University, U.S.A., 1988-

Professor of English, Department of English, Oberlin College, U.S.A., 1987-88

Recommendation to Senate of the University of Ife, Nigeria for promotion to full professor, 1986 [Process halted by resignation in 1987]

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor equivalent), Department of Literature in English, University of Ife, Nigeria, 1979-87.

Lecturer I, Department of Literature in English, University of Ife, 1977-79

Lecturer 2, (Assistant Professor Equivalent), Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan, 1975-77

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of English, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), 1974-75

PUBLICATIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS:

Books and Monographs:

Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, Postcolonialism, Cambridge University Press, 2004 [Winner of the American Library Association's 2004 OATS – "Outstanding Academic Texts" – award]

Modern African Drama: Norton Critical Editions (NCE) (edited) New York: W.W. Norton, 2002

Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: Freedom and Complexity, (edited) University Press of Mississippi, 2001

The Truthful Lie: Essays in a Radical Sociology of African Drama London: New Beacon Books, 1985.

The Yoruba Popular Traveling Theatre of Nigeria Lagos: Federal Ministry of Culture and Information, 1984

Art, Dialogue and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture, (edited) Ibadan: New Horn, 1988 [Wole Soyinka's critical prose republished in a revised and expanded version by London: Methuen, New York: Pantheon Books, 1993]

Wole Soyinka: A Voice of Africa New York: IMG Educators, 1990 [monograph]

Contemporary Nigerian Literature: A Retrospective and Prospective Exploration (edited) Lagos: Federal Ministry of Culture and Information, 1985.

Inside and Outside the African Postcolony: Essays in Intervention and Reflection [A selection of my essays, 1973-2000, forthcoming from Routledge]

Book Chapters:

One Year In the First Instance. In Meditations on African Literature, Dubem Okafor (ed), Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000

Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Agony of the Ogoni. In Ogonis' Agonies, Abdul-Rsheed Na'Allah (ed.), Africa World Press, 1998

Determinations of Remembering: Postcolonial Fictional Genealogies of Colonialism in Africa. In Streams of Cultural Capital, David Palumbo-Liu and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (eds.), Stanford University Press, 1997

The Reinvention of Theatrical Tradition. In The Intercultural Performance Reader, Patrice Pavis (ed.), Routledge, 1996

The Nature of Things: Arrested Decolonization and Critical Theory. In Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, Padmini Mongia (ed.), New York: Arnold, 1996

Art and Ideology in the Plays of Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin. In Silence is not Golden: A Critical Anthology of Ethiopian Literature, Taddesse Adera and Ali Ahmed Jimale (eds.), Lawrenceville, N.J.: Red Sea Press, 1995

Frantz Fanon. In The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth (eds), The Johns Hopkins Press, 1994

Literary Theory and Theories of Decolonization. In Literary Theory and African Literature, Josef Gugler, Hans-Jurgen Lusebrink and Jurgen Martini (eds.), Munster, Hamburg: Beitrage zur Afrikaforschung, 1994

Things Fall Apart : One Marxist Exegesis. In Bernth Lindfors (ed.), Approaches to Teaching Things Fall Apart, MLA Approaches to Teaching Masterpieces of World Literature Series, 1991.

For Chinua Achebe: The Resilience and the Predicament of Obierika. In Chinua Achebe: A Celebration, H. Petersen & Anna Rutherford (eds), Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books, 1990.

The Reinvention of Theatrical Tradition. In The Dramatic Touch of Difference, edited by Erika Fischer-Lichte. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1990.

On Eurocentric Critical Theory: Some Paradigms from the Texts and Subtexts of Postcolonial Writing. In After Europe: Critical Theory and Post-Colonial Writing, Stephen Slemon and Helen Tiffin, eds. Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1989.

Soyinka and the Tropes of Disalienation. Introduction to Art, Dialogue and Outrage, 1988.

Tragedy, History and Ideology. In G. Gugelberger (ed.), Marxism and African Literature, Trenton: Africa World Press, 1985.

Mythopoesis and Commitment. Introductory essay in Wole Soyinka: An Introduction to his Writings, O. Maduakor, New York: Garland Press, 1987.

The debate on literary pedagogy in Africa: the Ife experience. In J. Corzani and A. Ricard (eds.),Litteratures Africaines et Enseiggement, Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1985.

Literature and Conscientization: Interview with Chinua Achebe. In Contemporary Nigerian Literature: A Retrospective and Prospective Exploration, 1985.

Realms of Value in Literature: lnterview with Wole Soyinka. In Contemporary Nigerian Literature: A Retrospective and Prospective Exploration, 1985.

Literature, Criticism and Pedagogy: Interview with Emmanuel Obiechina. In Contemporary Nigerian Literature: A Retrospective and Prospective Exploration, 1985.

The Glow-worm of Consciousness: Chinua Achebe as a Theorist and Critic of Literature. In Contemporary Nigerian Literature, 1985

Interview with Wole Soyinka.

Introduction to Wole Soyinka: Six Selected Plays, London: Methuen, 1985.

Black Critics on Black Theatre.

In E. Hill (ed.),The Theatre of Black Americans, Vol. 2. Englewood, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981.

Literary drama and the search for a popular theatre in Nigeria.

In Y. Ogunbiyi (ed), Drama and Theatre in Nigeria: A Critical Sourcebook, Lagos: Federal Ministry of Culture and Information, 1981.

Articles:

Whose Theatre, Whose Africa?: Wole Soyinka's The Road on the Road

Modern Drama, Volume XLV, Number 3, Fall 2002

In the Wake of Colonialism and Modernity In Anglophonia/Caliban 7, 2000

‘Oguntoyinbo': Modernity and the ‘Rediscovery' Phase of Postcolonial Literature. In Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, No. 43, 1995.

Interview with Femi Osofisan.

Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, No. 43, 1995.

Politics and the Stratosphere of Complexity. In Transition, No. 64, 1994

Determinations of Remembering: Postcolonial Fictional Genealogies of Colonialism in Africa. In Stanford Literature Review , Vol. 10, No 1-2, Fall 1993.

Okonkwo and his Mother:Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse. In Callaloo , A Journal of Afro-American and African Arts and Letters, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1993

Interview with Nadine Gordimer. In Callaloo, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1993

Literature in Postcolonial Africa. In Dissent, Summer 1992.

The Nature of Things: Arrested Decolonization and Critical Theory. In Research in African Literatures, Vol. 21:2, Spring 1990.

What is the Will of Ogun?: Reflections on Soyinka's Nobel Prize and the African Literary Tradition. In The Literary Half-yearly, Vol. XXVIII, No. 2, 1987

African Literature and the Cultural Sub-Soil: The Conservative Reformist, and Revolutionary Options. In Odu: Joumal of West African Studies, 24, 1984.

Ideological and Semiotic Interpretations of Soyinka's The Road (written with R. Sekoni) In Ife Monographs on Literature and Criticism, No. 3, 1984.

Modem African Literature and the Cultural Question: The Racial, Continental, and Ethnic Imperatives. In Odu: Joumal of West African Studies, 23, 1983.

Grands lignes et tendances dans le theatre Africain engage. In Peuples Noirs, Peuples Africains 9, 1979.

Criticism and Educational Drama. In Proceedings of the National Workshop on Educational Drama, Lagos: Federal Ministry of Education, 1976.

Black Critics on Black Theatre. In The Drama Review (T-63), 18, 1974.

Literature, Politics, and Ideology: An Interview with Wole Soyinka In Transition 42, 1973.

Literary and Cultural Journalism:

Over 50 articles and reviews in newspapers and magazines in Nigeria and Britain among which the following have been collected in published volumes:

The Language Factor in Modem Nigerian literature. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, 1700 to the Present, Vol. 1, Yemi Ogunbiyi, (ed.) Lagos: Guardian Books,1988.

Abiola Irele: The Scholar as Critic. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 1.

Chinua Achebe as Literary Critic and Theorist. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2

Wole Soyinka as Literary Critic and Theorist. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2.

Femi Osofisan as Literary Critic and Theorist. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2.

Ben Okri. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2.

Mamman J. Vatsa. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2.

Niyi Osundare. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2.

Wole Soyinka's Theatre. In Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. 2

Manuscripts in Preparation:

Modernity from Below [A two-volume study of the colonial foundations and legacies of modernity]:

Volume 1: The Civilizing Process and the Civilizing Mission

Volume 2: Late Modernity and the Impossible Project of ‘Civilizing' Accumulation

Colloquia and Symposia: [A Partial List]

Inside and Outside the Whale: ‘Bandung', ‘Rwanda', Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies

2002 Annual Invitational Lecture, Society for the Humanities, Cornell February 26, 2002

_Who's Africa, Whose Theatre? Wole Soyinka's The Road on the Road University of Toronto, November 18, 2001

_In the Wake of Colonialism and Modernity Harvard University, April 14, 1999; University of Leiden, Holland, October 22. 1999

_Writing Ourselves into the Discourse on Late Modernity Keynote Address, Colloque on "Thresholds and Borders: Anglophone Literatures in the New Millennium", Universite de Toulouse, France, February 6, 1999

_"What Is Africa to Me"? Public Lecture, Bucknell University, March 16, 1998

_Literature and Its Others: An African Paradigm. Keynote Address, UNESCO Colloquium on "African Literature in the 21st Century", Harare, Zimbabwe, February 1992.

_‘Othering' America: Aime Cesaire, C.L.R. James and Africana Studies. Public Lecture, Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, February 10, 1993.

Modalities of Postcolonial Discourse. Public Lecture, Department of English, University of Virginia, February 19, 1993.

What is Postcolonial Discourse? Public Lecture, University of Wisconsin, Madison. February 26, 1993.

Arrested Decolonization and the Discourse on Literary Value. Special Colloquium on "Economies of Art: History and Theory, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann-Arbor, January 25, 1990

Nativism(s) and Post-Colonial Critical Theory. Colloquium on "The Limits of Otherness", Yale University Whitney Humanities Center, November 3, 1989.

African Literature and the Development of Underdevelopment: the Contradictions and the Challenges. Contribution to the Invited "Speakers' Forum" on Conference Theme, African Literature Association Annual Conference, Cornell University, April 1987.

Soyinka Contra Senghor: Two Moments of Idealist African Literary Aesthetics. Invited Talk, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, March 1986.

African Literature and its Theorists. Colloquium on Identity and African Literature, University of Bayreuth, West Germany, June 1985.

Theatre Research in Africa. Invited Talk, International Theatre Institute Festival, Humboldt University, East Berlin, August 17, 1984

Amilcar Cabral and the Cultural Imperative of Struggle. Invited Talk, Centre for Multi-Cultural Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, April 8, 1983.

Augusto Boal and the Paradigms of Popular Theatre in the Third World. Forum on Literature and Theatre, Third International Book Fair on Radical Black and Third World Books, Camden Town Hall, London, March 30, 1983.

Culture, Educational Planning and the Development Process. Conference on Education for Liberation, World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), Africa Region, Nairobi, Kenya, February 12, 1981.

Universities in Africa: Future Prospects. Keynote Address at Colloquium on University Education in Africa, University Teachers Association on Ghana (UTAG)Biennial Delegates Conference, University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, April 17, 1981.

HONORS AND AWARDS:

Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, January 4-15, 20000

Visiting Professor of English and Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, 1999-2000

Senior Ford Fellow and Visiting Professor of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, 1998-99

Visiting Professor, Department of English, University of Bayreuth, West Germany, June-July 1985.

Invited Guest, Keynote Speaker, Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), Annual Delegates Conference, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, August 9, 1984.

Invited Guest, Educational and Scientific Workers Union (ESWU), Soviet Union, May 4, 1984.

University of Ibadan Post-Graduate Scholarship (tenable at NYU),1971-75.

NUPEMCO Award, Silver Jubilee Celebrations, University of Ibadan, 1973.

University Scholar Post-Graduate Scholarship Award, University of lbadan, 1970-71

Faculty of Arts Prize, University of lbadan, 1970.

English Departmental Prize, University of Ibadan, 1970.

Kuti Hall Masters Prize, University of lbadan, 1968.

English Departmental Prize, University of Ibadan, 1968.

COURSES TAUGHT AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY

English 257, Introduction to African Literature

English 263, Studies in Film Analysis: The Cinema of Spike Lee

English 272, Introduction to Drama

English 437, The ‘Fiction' of Race and the Fact(s) of Racism

English 438, Recent African and African-American Feminist Fiction

English 479, The Theatre of Wole Soyinka and Athol Fugard

English 478, Tradition, Modernity and Revolution in African Literature

English 683, Comparative African and African-American Critical Thought

English 694, Marxism and Postcolonial Discourse

English 698, "Broken English": English Studies in a Postcolonial, ‘Postmodern' Frame

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:

Senior Ford Fellow, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, 1998/99

Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Fellowship, 1996/97

Travel grant from Cornell's Society for the Humanities under the program of Internationalization of Research in the Humanities, 1990.

Summer support from Cornell University for curriculum development in the area of colonial and postcolonial studies as a new field of graduate concentration in the field of English, 1990, 1991.

"Wole Soyinka: Mythopoesis and History" (research supported by a grant from the University of Ife, Nigeria, 1984).

"Ideology in Modem African Literature: A Socio-Cultural Study" (research supported by a grant from the University of Ife, Nigeria, 1984).

"The Yoruba Traveling Theatre", Research grant by the Federal Department of Culture, Nigeria, 1982-84

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

Associate Chair, Department of English, Cornell, 2002-05

Member, Faculty Advisory Committee on Tenure Appointments, Cornell University (FACTA), 2002-04

On the graduate faculty of the departments of English, Comparative Literature, Theatre, Film and Dance, and the Africana Studies and Research Centre, Cornell University.

[Several graduate students I directly supervised now on the faculty of several universities in North America, the Caribbean, South Asia and Africa; currently on the special committees of about 15 graduate students]

External Examiner at several African, European, Canadian, Caribbean and South Asian universities in the last fifteen years.

Member, Editorial Board, Diacritics, 1990-98

Member, Editorial Board,Transition, 1991-

Reader of book manuscripts and journal articles for PMLA, Research in African Literatures, Princeton University Press, Indiana University Press, Garland Press, Greenwood Press, Routledge.

Contributing Editor, The African Guardian, 1986-

Editor, Ife Monographs on Literature and Criticism, University of Ife, 1983-87.

Member, National Executive Council, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Nigeria, 1982-86.

Acting Head, Department of Literature in English, University of Ife, 1983-84.

National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Nigeria, 1980-82.

Member, Faculty Board of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Ife, 1979-80.

Founding Editor, Positive Review: Journal of Society and Culture in Black Africa

REFERENCES (available upon request)