Classical Temper and Creative Ingenuity in Osofisan’s Tegonni: An African Antigone

Abstract

This essay closely reads Osofisan‘s Tegonni: An African Antigone in the light of its classical antecedent and critically examines the playwright‘s deconstruction of Sophocles‘s Antigone as manifested in the thematic preoccupation, style, linguistic mediums and mythical contents of Tegonni. Through an exploration of the play, the feminist, Marxist and postcolonial agenda of the author is discussed together with his emphasis on local history and oral tradition. In spite of the author‘s recourse to colonial history and other local literary and non-literary materials, this essay argues that the play is still analogous to the classical play as both plays are affiliated in terms of plot, characterisation and ending. The essay ends with the proposition that Osofisan questions existing political and aesthetic structures and traditions, by demystifying supernatural claims on human existence and promoting a radical ideology based on the Marxist convictions of equity and egalitarianism while standing on the Hellenist platform.