Modern African Drama: Critical and Theoretical Approaches

This book presents a contour of the literary theories and critical approaches in modern African drama. Theories are discussed against the backdrop of modern African drama and include Symbolism, Naturalism, Nativism, the quest for Indigenous Aesthetics, Oral Narratives, Narratology, Marxism, Cultural Materialism, Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Psycho-analytic criticism, New Historicism, Ecocriticism, Feminism, Postcolonialism and Intertextuality. The objective is to offer researchers and scholars of modern African drama a comprehensive approach of the discipline of African drama from theoretical perspective. Critical debates on the possibility of reading African drama with the lenses of contemporary literary theories have been controversial among critics of African literature. Some critics have been asserting that African drama should be theory-free in its intellectual and scholarly interpretation. Others opine that modern African drama should be analyzed within the mainstream of African literature alongside the novel and poetry. This book seeks to revert these views by pointing out the importance of theories in the interpretation and understanding of African drama.