Abstract
Literature abounds on the way gender issues are foregrounded in both literary and non-literary texts. Many of these studies, especially from the linguistic perspective, fail to pay attention to how proverbs and figurative expressions are used to expose feminist ideology in discourse. This study, therefore, considers the way these cultural elements are used to ex-press the feminist beliefs of Femi Osofisan in some of his drama texts to lend credence to the argument that every genre of text and talk is capable of bearing ideological nuances. The study deploys Norman Fairclough’s socio-cultural model of CDA which incorporates aspects of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as theoretical model. Three of Osofisan’s drama texts, which mostly express his feminist tendencies; Morountodun, YungbaYungba and the Dance Contest and Tegonni: An African Antigone are purposively sampled to explain the expressive capabilities of women. Proverbs and figurative expressions are subjected to descriptive linguistic analysis to bring out the underlying gender rhetoric. Osofisan projects women’s ability to use proverbs and figures of speechto express power. There is the overrid-ing feminist ideology of women as expressive and dynamic in the texts.
Highlights
Studies both in the literary and linguistic fields have examined the way language contributes to the suppression of women and sometimes proffer possible solutions
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a sociolinguistic theory explains the relationship existing among language, power and ideology
Three of Femi Osofisan’s plays: Morountodun (1982), YungbaYungba and the dance contest (1993) and Tegonni: An African Antigonne (1995) are purposively sampled for this study because, out of all the plays written by Osofisan, these three extensively express his feminist ideology
Summary
Studies both in the literary and linguistic fields have examined the way language contributes to the suppression of women and sometimes proffer possible solutions. Some are complacent while others believe it is divine for women to be suppressed Be that as it may, Femi Osofisan’s efforts in projecting the female gender cannot be overemphasised. With over 50 drama texts to his credit and a reasonable number out of these devoted to the celebration of womanhood, no other Nigerian author, whether male or female, possibly has such credentials His works have not received a commensurate level of attention especially in the critical feminist linguistic category. Most of the works on Osofisan focus on literary analyses of these texts which makes appraisal one-sided Where his drama texts are subjected to linguistic analyses, the way cultural elements, which are usually copiously deployed in his texts, are used to express gendered beliefs have not received much scholarly attention. The present study attempts a critical discourse analysis of three of Femi Osofisan’s plays with focus on his use of proverbs and figurative colourations to reveal his feminist ideology
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