Literary Adaptation in Nigerian Modern Drama

Concept, Theory and Significance

Abstract

Literary adaptation as a concept is giving a new interpretation to an already existing text in a new medium and culture. It engenders transformation and creativity with or without a departure from the original version. Literary and cultural interplay between two texts of different cultural backgrounds often results in duality and conflict when a text is adapted to another culture or genre with or without a departure from the original text. As such, researchers, university scholars, students as well as teachers of literary and cultural studies often seek clarifications between the interplay and the duality in two cultural settings. In contemporary times, playwrights culturally adapt novels to dramas with or without a departure from the original text. This discovery of novels as a source of materials for drama in the 1960s triggered the interest in adaptation of Western texts to African and Nigerian contexts. Although there are previous studies in literary adaptations of Western texts and Nigerian modern drama in the literature, it was observed that the significance of adaptations of Western texts to Nigerian modern drama and the cultural similarities between the adapted text and the source text caused scholars to yearn for more investigation. Consequently, this paper discusses the concept of adaptation as a literary genre in Nigerian modern drama, intertextuality and the drama mode of presentation. It highlights the aesthetics and significance of adaptation as a genre of Nigerian modern drama. The paper employs qualitative research method using Kristeva’s Intertextuality and Iser’s Reader-Response theories as frameworks. Findings reveal that literary adaptation of Western texts plays a significant role in the development of Nigerian modern drama. The study recommends further studies in adaptations of French and English literatures, its socio-cultural influence and interplay with Nigeria sociocultural milieu.