Nigerian Female Dramatists

This book showcases the important, but often understudied, work of Nigerian women playwrights. As in many spheres of life in Nigeria, in literature and other creative arts the voices of men dominate, and the work of women has often been sidelined. However, Nigerian women playwrights have made important contributions to the development of drama in Nigeria, not just by presenting female identities and inequalities but by vigorously intervening in wider social and political issues. This book draws on perspectives from culture, language, politics, theory, orality and literature, to shine a light on the engaged creativity of women playwrights. From the trail blazing but more traditional contributions of Zulu Sofola, through to contemporary postcolonial work by Tess Osonye Onwueme, Julie Okoh, and Sefi Atta, to name just a few, the book shows the rich variety of work being produced by female Nigerian dramatists. This, the first major collection devoted to Nigerian women playwrights, will be an important resource for scholars of African theatre and performance, literature and women’s studies.

Fifteen contributors from Nigerian universities write on twenty Nigerian women writers. The aim of the editors was to bring into focus the literary contribution of Nigerian women writers up to the present. The writers are grouped into four broad categories: novelists, dramatists, poets, and the children's literature writers. They include the well-known writers, such as Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and Adaora Ulasi; but also relatively unknown female writers who have contributed to the development of Nigerian literature. The book includes a short biography on each writer; a list of her publications; words about her and a critical analysis of her works.

"[This book] is a research effort by the author, originally as "Ideology, power and powerlessness in female creativity", using Tess Onwueme's plays as a case study. An original and very insightful study, it throws light on female creativity within the sociological matrix of contemporary Africa. The analysis is done with the ideological framework of feminism and womanism with the aim of arousing female consciousness to be more alive to the societal biases that deny them their dignity and womanhood. [This work] is part of a corpus of the on-going battle by female writers and critics to narrow the gap of male dominance in dramatic creativity and appreciation in Africa."--P. [4] of cover.

The contributions to this volume in the African Theatre series make clear that the role of women in the theatre across the continent has changed as control is mainly held by literate elites and women's traditional standing has been lost to men.

Up-to-date biographies with a list of works for each of the writers, detailed annotations to the original text and a glossary complete this edition."--BOOK JACKET.

Society, Women and Literature in Africa explores the ideological, literary, political, cultural and ethical issues related to feminist writing. She discusses how contemporary African writers have tried to counteract men’s false assumptions about sex, love, society, fecundity and womanhood, and further details how African writers have responded to the demands of feminism. “Woman’s Cross Cultural Burden in the selected works of West African Female writers” explores the recurrent themes of motherhood, polygamy, abandonment and widowhood in the works of Nwapa, Emecheta, Alkali, Aidoo and Mariama Bâ. In “Prostitution: A Metaphor for the Degradation of Womanhood in Bode Osanyin’s the Noble Mistress”, the author approaches the subject of woman degradation in society from the perspectives of comprehensive research and an in-depth referencing. “Gendered Social Division of Labour in the African Novel” explores the theme of unfairness, of institutionalized differentiation in the African novel. It reveals the total emasculation of woman in patriarchy and her desire to be liberated from male-annexation. “The Prison World of Nigeria Woman: Female Reticence in Sefi Attah’s “Everything Good Will Come”, the author explores the dimensions of “gender silences”. She shows how woman’s voice has been stolen in patriarchy, thus rendering her a social and political mutant. “Womanhood as a Metaphor for Sexual Slavery in Nawal El Saddawi’s Woman at Point Zero” underscores that in patriarchy a woman is educated to make an object of herself for male pleasure. She is excluded from politics as a result of religion. “The Ugly Face of Ghana in the New Millennium: Alienation of Children in Amma Darko’s Faceless” is a stylistic study of the consequences of globalization in postindependent Ghana. In “The Theme of Dispossession in A.N Akwanya’s the Pilgrim Foot”, the author examines the myriad perspectives of dispossession and the dispossessor.