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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:21st Century Image of Women: A Womanist Reading of Two Nigerian Plays
Author:Ogunleye, FolukeISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:Research Review (ISSN 0855-4412)
Volume:20
Issue:1
Pages:33-47
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Nigeria
West Africa
Subjects:women
theatre
literature
drama
Women in literature
Women dramatists
Ogunleye, Foluke
Utoh, Tracie Chima
About persons:Foluke Adesina
Chima Utoh
Abstract:In the Nigerian theatre, more female playwrights are emerging to question the invisibility and negative female stereotypes that have characterized the works of many Nigerian male dramatists. They are beginning to challenge the male-centric approach of this hitherto patriarchal domain. The present study examines the seminal efforts of two female playwrights, Foluke Adesina and Chima Utoh. The two plays for analysis are 'A nest in a cage', by Foluke Adesina (1997) and 'Who owns this coffin?' by Chima Utoh (1999). The main preoccupation of these works is the critical analysis of the image of the twenty-first century Nigerian woman. The article focuses on the selected playwrights as 'womanists', who are engaged in the process of constructing icons and symbols for African and Nigerian women. It also discusses, among other things, the process of providing examples for African and Nigerian women's self-expression and self-identification. It adopts the position that womanism does not shy away from reality; consequently, the study examines the various types of female characters: the good, the bad, and the ugly, within the society as presented in the plays. The bad and the ugly are presented as results of patriarchal social structures and individual pathologies. This discourse is predicated on the view that womanist poetics is a way of raising the consciousness of women in order to enhance their involvement in all areas of society without any inhibition. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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