Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
Death and the King's Horseman
Soyinka's 1975 tragedy — the Yoruba ritual suicide of Elesin Oba interrupted by colonial intervention
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Death and the King's Horseman (Mid) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Non-Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Bi-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Death and the King's Horseman
The 1946 Oyo historical moment; the three Yoruba worlds (living, dead, unborn) the play presents.
Space
Death and the King's Horseman
Oyo and its colonial-administrative setting; the Yoruba cosmic space.
Matter
Death and the King's Horseman
The embodied Elesin whose death is the play's ritual centre.
Observer
Death and the King's Horseman
The Yoruba community as proper participant-observer of the ritual.
Energy
Death and the King's Horseman
The cosmic-ritual energies whose interruption the play stages.
Information
Death and the King's Horseman
The Yoruba-cosmological content the play presents.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The play has been variously assessed — universally canonical in postcolonial-literary studies, occasionally contested for its metaphysical specificity by readers seeking simpler political allegory.