摘要
This study discusses how Liking(1996)in The Power of Um and Onwueme(1992)in The Reign of Wazobia anchor complex negotiations of public and private identities on gender as a site of enactments of power.Through experimentation with dramatic techniques,the selected Cameroonian and Nigerian women playwrights emphasize the centrality of gender as a site for a sustained critique of the larger social formations.The paper hypothesizes that Liking’s and Onwueme’s plays are thematically ambitious and stylistically experimental demonstrating a dynamic process through which the dramatists integrate concrete experiences into their creative consciousness in gender-conscious ways.In that respect,gender stands out as the performance space of struggle between the performance of power to maintain hegemony and the power of performance for social change.For scientific vigour,the study uses the gender relations approach to demonstrate how the playwrights appropriate the dynamics of performance to translate,interpret and challenge deeply ingrained patriarchal paradigms and also to explain,theorize and account for the complex realities of African women’s lives.
