The Superman as Master Narrative in Wole Soyinka’s Season of Anomy

Wole Soyinka’s Season of Anomy is regarded by some as one of themasterpieces of African literature, but it presents challenges in reading, leadingothers, among them literary critics, to pronounce it a failure. There is therefore deepambivalence over this novel, but it comes from the expectations with which the readersapproach it. Literary works may share elements of structure, but that does not mean thatthey should all be read in the same way, with the same expectations. The history ofcriticism of African literature going back to the early 1970s has put in place atradition in which literature is directly connected to the so-called social context asits referential and basis of intelligibility. In response, creative writing isincreasingly in sync with this theory, and critics formed in this tradition expect eachwork to provide a window on that social context. It is taken in this article that thistradition of reading is the reason for the difficulty many have with Soyinka’s texts.Season of Anomy demands both close reading and application of heuristic devices fromliterary theory and criticism because it is indeed a literary work of art. The masternarrative of the superman is applied here to motivate a literary analysis of the work.Opening up Season of Anomy in this way makes it apparent that we are dealing with agreat work, deeply grounded in a tradition of art much older than the mid-20th-centurytheory of engagement, and not a failure of any sort