THEMATIC UNIVERSALITY IN J P CLARK-BEKEDEREMO’STHE WIVES REVOLT, OZIGI SAGA AND SONG OF A GOAT

Abstract

John Pepper Clark Bekederemo as one of Nigeria’s foremost dramatist is often described as a first generation writer. His creative outputs usually reflect the stories of his motherland. A unique attribute of his plays is the constant disruption of the norm. Through a historical purview, the dramatist and poet exhibits his internal dialogues by writing plays that delve into the situations of his motherland, Nigeria. He explores themes that strive to question the status-quo and disrupts narratives. Using The Wives Revolt, Ozidi and Song of a Goat and Other Playsthis paper explores themes that echo the struggles for supremacy, women struggle for recognition in decision making within the society, distribution of assets, male infertility amongst other major thematic preoccupations in the selected plays. These themes reflect the conditions of humanity that readers all over can identify with. The relevance of the issues in the selected plays gives Clark Bekederemo’s works the universality being explored in this study. The paper employs literary text analysis using qualitative approach to reveal the universality of Clark-Bekederemo’s thematic preoccupation in a way that cut across culture and race. It discovers that the state of universality in the selected plays addresses issues not just peculiar to the Ijaw people but that which cuts across borders. Readers and audience alike can identify with issues treated in the plays and make comparison to what happens in real life.