From Margins to the Centre: A Transformative Representation of Women in Femi Osofisan's Morountodun and Women of Owu

This paper critically examines the representation of women in male-authored plays in Nigeria, with particular focus on Femi Osofisan’s Morountodun and Women of Owu. The paper analyzes how the playwright, as a male voice, reconstructs female identities within revolutionary and historical frameworks. Drawing on the Marxist and feminist theoretical frameworks, the paper interrogates the ideological underpinnings and dramaturgical choices that influence female imaging in these plays. The study adopts qualitative textual analytical method, which involves critical analysis of the play-texts under focus. The analysis reveals that Femi Osofisan, in Morountodun and Women of Owu contributes meaningfully to the discourse on gender and historical agency in Nigerian drama. The paper avers that the early male dramatists in Nigeria such as Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, and Ola Rotimi portrayed women negatively in their works. However, the plays of the contemporary male playwrights such Femi Osofisan, Ahmed Yerima and Olu Obafemi among others represent a departure from the traditional practices of their predecessors. Femi Osofisan particularly, challenges patriarchal ideologies and reflect the evolving socio-political discourse in Nigeria. The study therefore, concludes that unlike the early male dramatists who portrayed women negatively in their works, the plays of Femi Osofisan marks a new phase of positive portrayal of women in Nigerian drama from passive cultural figures to central agents of social change.