%0 Journal Article
%T Osofisan and the paradox of a literary style
%A EK Efakponana
%J Creative Artist: A Journal of Theatre and Media Studies
%D 2009
%I 
%X In order to understand trends and developments on the Nigerian stage, the literary dramatist is considered a determinant of its future advancement. Theatre as a composite art possesses the ability to relate to other cultures, traditions and fields of learning, reaching out and unifying them dynamically. This paper examines select works of Femi Osofisan as a paradigm for measuring foreign influences on Nigerian drama and theatre, which ideally should maintain a close link with its traditional heritage. It is the submission of this paper that, although Osofisan¡¯s theatre is rooted in the social culture of Nigeria, it is however subsumed in Euro-American aesthetics, values, ideologies, philosophies and attitudes. Osofisan, like many other Nigerian playwrights, is thus considered as a product of a paradox. He is inspired by religion, education, his numerous contacts with the West, philosophies and aesthetic traditions of other nations and cultures; a product of the colonial accident and a nostalgic longing for the ancient past. This creates in his writings an identity crisis, which leads to a literature of activism that is committed to fighting for one form of freedom or the other while being enslaved within the same bonds from which the playwright is seeking a release. It is the submission of this paper that, Nigerian literary drama therefore requires a new form that is akin to its cultural heritage. The formal theatres and the arts theatre syndrome is inhibiting to the vibrant traditional Nigerian theatre culture.
%U http://www.ajol.info/index.php/cajtms/article/view/76584