Whatever Happened to "Queens English": Creativity and Innovation in Wole Soyinka's Collected Plays 2

Abstract

This paper demonstrates, using examples from Wole Soyinka's Collected Plays 2 (1974), how the 1986 Nobel Literature Laureate has succeeded in transforming the English language to communicate his ideas, beliefs and innermost thoughts to a wider world, and in that process creating a variety of English that alone can transmit his ideas without necessarily losing his authenticity and creativity in the process. This way, Soyinka, and other African writers are making important contributions to the English language in particular, and to the science of language in general.