Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Sisters And Wives Against Vulnerability: Theatricalizing Otherness and Power in Medea, Aetu and Their Doubles
Sekinat Folake Akorede
ABSTRACT:
Motherhood is a recurring theme in cultural representation – in mythology, literature and the arts, and these representations of the mother(hood) include a multitude of tropes – incestuous or devouring mothers, mother-lovers, witches as anti-mothers etc, which invariably mirrors societal anxieties. In my presentation, I will explore deviant varieties of motherhood in literature, specifically sample texts from Greek tragedy and Nigerian drama, namely; Euripides’ Medea and Ahmed Yerima’s Aetu. I will stress how in both plays, social perceptions conditioned actions that position the central characters of both plays as monstrous mothers, or those considered as ‘monstrous feminine’ (Creed 1993). Conclusively, I will discuss ways in which cultural and political perceptions work to undermine social cohesion and ultimately social disintegration
keywords: culture, drama, mother(hood), social perception, tragedy