Existentialist Temperament in African Drama: A Reading of Tewfik Al-Hakim’s Plays

Many critical theories have developed over the years as a result of the complex nature of the modern world. There is a change from the colossal theories to more explicit ones, and existentialism is one of such theories. Existentialism is a concept which has been applied to the works of a group of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers, thinkers, and writers, who share the belief that man’s quest to determine the self in the modern world is met by hostility and indifference in a world bedevilled by war, oppression, strife, kidnapping, senseless killings, among others. The concept of existentialism is made popular in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and most writers of this period wrote works of literature to capture the nothingness of life and equally demonstrate this unfortunate reality in the society. Findings reveal that existentialism appears relevant to the explication and criticism of these African dramas. Therefore, this essay seeks to explicate Tewfik Al-Hakim’s plays: Fate of a Cockroach, The Song of Death, and Sultan’s Dilemma, as existentialist dramas and concludes that, though, some of the plays under explication are humours and even absurd, they discuss and reiterate serious issues of life pertaining to man’s search for independence.