Women and the Quest for a New Narrative in Contemporary Nigerian Drama: An Examination of Irene Isoken Agunloye's Sweet Revenge and Tracie ChimaUtoh-Ezeajugh's Nneora: An African Doll's House

Abstract

Purpose: This paper seeks to examine the presentation of the images of women in Nigerian drama. Many female playwrights in Nigeria believe that women are misrepresented in plays written by men.  Their claim is that the images of women as presented in the literary works of most male playwright are not true reflection of women in real life. In the early Nigerian drama, mostly written by men, women were usually portrayed as weak, inferior, and unimportant personalities.   The women are generally quiet and subdued and their primary functions revolve around the family. Even in contemporary times, most plays written by men present women only in relation to male protagonists rather than as individual.  Our focus in this work however, is on selected works of two distinguished Nigerian female playwrights namely Irene Isoken Agunloye and Tracie Utoh-Ezeajugh.

Methodology: This paper adopts a textual analytical method in the sense that data for analysis are sourced from the two selected texts for this study. The texts are Sweet Revenge by Irene Isoken Agunloye and Nneora: An African Doll House by Tracie ChimaUtoh-Ezeajugh.  

Findings: Textual analysis of the plays has revealed that, as a result of the negative portrayal of women in male authored plays, female writers have taken up the challenge of re-writing their story, by creating a new narrative in which women are presented in a very positive way.

Unique Contributions to Theory, Practice and Policy: This work is premised on the womanist theory which seeks to improve the image of women and engender the principles of justice, equity and fair play in Nigeria.