The Theatre of Femi Osofisan: Marxism. Mythologies. Mimesis.

The Theatre of Femi Osofisan: Marxism. Mythologies. Mimesis. evaluates major critical perspectives on Osofisan’s dramaturgy and brings the scholarship up to date by fashioning an overarching dramatic theory and criticism for understanding and performing the plays of Osofisan. Ilori focuses our attention on the ascendant elements of Osofisan’s symbolic-aesthetic world - his aesthetics, politics, polemics, postcolonial discourse and the constant presence of African oral arts in his plays. Ilori characterises Osofisan’s theatre as a unique popular theatre whose seams and annals recall the vantage aspects of Yoruba popular theatre, on the one hand and are representative of the best literary traditions, on the other. Using the tools of Marxism, mythologies and mimesis, Ilori drills into the intrinsic relations between the social and technical facets of Osofisan’s theatre as the pivot of his theatrical medium and message.