Search results for ""author nadia anwar""

Nadia Anwar analyzes select post-independence Nigerian dramas through the conceptual framework of metatheater, a strategy that breaks dramatic illusion to foreground the process of play making. Anwar argues that distancing, as a function of metatheater, fosters a balanced theatrical environment by allowing the emotive and cognitive aspects of reception to dominate the theatergoing experience. She draws on Bertolt Brecht, Thomas J. Scheff, and other theoreticians to critique plays by Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Femi Osofisan, Esiaba Irobi, and Stella 'Dia Oyedepo.

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Nadia Anwar presents a compelling reading framework for the study and analysis of selected post-independence Nigerian dramas, using the conceptual parameters of metatheatre, a theatrical strategy which foregrounds the process of play-making by breaking the dramatic illusion. She argues that distancing, as a function of metatheatre, creates a balanced theatrical experience and environment in terms of the emotive and cognitive levels of reception of a particular performance. Anwar's book is the first in-depth study of the concept of metatheatre with reference to Nigerian drama including Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman (1975) and King Baabu (2002), Ola Rotimi's Kurunmi (1971) and Hopes of the Living Dead (1988), Femi Osofisan's The Chattering and the Song (1977) and Women of Owu (2006), Esiaba Irobi's Hangmen Also Die (1989), and Stella 'Dia Oyedepo's A Play That Was Never to Be (1998). The perspectives of Bertolt Brecht (1936), Thomas J Scheff (1963), and other theoreticians of dramatic distancing and metatheatre are used in the analyses and, where required, challenged through appropriate contextual and theoretical adjustments. The book is the first attempt to illustrate how Brechtian approach to the display and generation of emotions can be revised through Scheff's model of emotional balance.

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