Sophocles’s Antigone and Osofisan’s Tegonni: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This article is an intertextual study of Sophocles’s Antigone and Femi Osofisan’s Tegonni: An African Antigone. The article critically interrogates the ideological stance of both playwrights by discussing their historical backgrounds. The prevalence of and justification for intertextual studies and adaptations of classical plays by modern African playwrights are well articulated in the article. The theoretical framework of the article is based on postcolonial theory, which is essentially concerned with the influence and the consequences of colonialism on the colonised. The article notes that Sophocles’s Antigone promotes social injustice and the oppression of the poor, which is exemplified in the tragedy of Antigone who symbolises the proletariat, while Osofisan’s Tegonni presents a daring revolutionary whose duty is to fight against the oppression of the poor and champion the liberation of the downtrodden. The article notes, therefore, that the drama of Sophocles endorses the theatre of the oppressor, while Osofisan promotes the theatre of the oppressed in line with Augusto Boal’s concept of the theatre of the oppressed.