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Biodun Jeyifo

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Biodun Jeyifo
Born (1946-01-05) 5 January 1946 (age 79)
Other namesBJ
Alma mater
Occupations
EmployerHarvard University

Biodun Jeyifo (born 5 January 1946)[1] is a Nigerian Marxist scholar, critic, and cultural theorist and a specialist in world Anglophone literature and culture. He is a professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University and emeritus professor of English at Cornell University.[2] He has also taught at Oberlin College and he is a visiting professor at Freie University in Berlin, Germany,[3] and Peking University in China.[4]

It has been said of him: "No other scholar, apart from Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha, is more attentive to the radically dispensed accents or strands of thinking the post-colonial the way BJ has done."[5]

Biography

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Jeyifo earned a PhD in 1975 from New York University, where Richard Schechner was his PhD supervisor; he had gained a master's degree from the same university in 1973, and a bachelor's in 1970 at the University of Ìbàdàn, where he graduated with first-class honours — the second in the university after Molara Ogundipe. He also holds a D.Litt (honoris causa) from Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ University.[6] He has taught at Cornell University, Oberlin College, and Harvard University. Jeyifo was the first president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria, when he taught at the University of Ife.

Publications

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  • ⁠ ⁠By Popular Demand: The Yoruba Traveling Theater of Nigeria (Nigeria Magazine, 1984).[7]
  • ⁠ ⁠Contemporary Nigerian Literature (Nigeria Magazine, 1985, ISBN 9789781730344)[8]
  • ⁠ ⁠The Truthful Lie: Essays in the Sociology of African Drama (London: New Beacon Books, 1985, ISBN 9780901241634)[9]
  • ⁠ ⁠Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Post colonialism (Cambridge, 2004, ISBN 9780521110730)[10]
  • ⁠ ⁠Things Fall Apart, Things Fall Together (BookCraft Africa, 2010)[11]
  • ⁠ ⁠Against the Predators' Republic (Carolina Academic Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1-61163-792-2)[12]
  • ⁠Apostrophes: To Friendship, Socialism and Democracy (Bookcraft, Ibadan, 2021)[13]

As editor

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  • ⁠ ⁠Conversations with Wole Soyinka (University Press of Mississippi, 2001, ISBN 9781578063376)[14]
  • ⁠ Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: ⁠Freedom and Complexity (University of Mississippi Press, 2001, ISBN 9781578069309)[15]
  • ⁠ ⁠Modern African Drama (Norton Critical Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002, ISBN 978-0-393-97529-1)[16]
  • Africa in the World & The World in Africa: Essays in Honour of Abiola Irele (Africa World Press, 2011).[17]

Further reading

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Family life

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He is the father of visual artist Olalekan Jeyifous

References

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  1. ^ "Biodun Jeyifo at 70: His person, prowess, push for freedom". The Nation. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  2. ^ Adesina, Gbenro (6 January 2016). "Wole Soyinka, others celebrate Biodun Jeyifo at 70". pmnewsnigeria.com. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  3. ^ "Biodun Jeyifo". www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de. 10 October 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
  4. ^ "An Introduction of the Courses on African Literature and Culture". caspu.pku.edu.cn. Center for African Studies Peking University. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
  5. ^ Ajibade, Kunle (19 July 2024). "Biodun Jeyifo: A life of service to humanity". pmnewsnigeria.com. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  6. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (15 December 2018). "Acceptance Speech: D. Lit (Honoris Causa), OAU-Ife, 2018". The Nation. Nigeria. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
  7. ^ Götrick, Kacke (1987). "Review of The Yoruba Popular Theatre of Nigeria". Research in African Literatures. 18 (1): 103–105. ISSN 0034-5210. JSTOR 4618167.
  8. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (1985). Contemporary Nigerian literature: a retrospective and prospective exploration. Lagos, Nigeria: Federal Dept. of Culture. OL 2475044M.
  9. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (1985). The Truthful Lie: Essays in a Sociology of African Drama. New Beacon Books. ISBN 978-0-901241-63-4. Retrieved 5 July 2025 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (May 2009). "Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, and Postcolonialism". Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  11. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (2010). "Things Fall Apart, Things Fall Together". bookcraftafrica.com. Bookcraft Africa. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  12. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (2016). Against the Predators' Republic: Political and Cultural Journalism, 2007–2013. Carolina Academic Press.
  13. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (2021). "Apostrophes to Friendship, Socialism and Democracy". bookcraftafrica.com. Bookcraft Africa. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  14. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun, ed. (2001). Conversations with Wole Soyinka. University Press of Mississippi.
  15. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun, ed. (2006). Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: ⁠Freedom and Complexity. University Press of Mississippi.
  16. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (ed.). "Modern African Drama". wwnorton.com. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  17. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (ed.). "Africa in the World & The World in Africa". New Beacon Books. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  18. ^ "Critical Masters. On Biodun Jeyifo". Journal of the African Literature Association. 12 (1). Taylor & Francis. 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
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