Rethinking activism in the literary representation of nature in selected Nigerian drama texts

Abstract

The literary study and representation of nature is one that has gained prominence in Nigerian literary discourses in recent times. This has often been interrogated in the course of man‘s radical agitation and activism to put an end to environmental despoliation and injustice. However, the expressions, radical agitation and activism by nature itself has not gained deliberate attention in Nigerian drama texts. This essay attempts to portray how Nigerian playwrights have been able to position nature as one that expresses herself and reacts to environmental degradation and injustice. The selection of J.P. Clark‘s The Raft and Greg Mbajiorgu‘s Wake Up Everyone is therefore purposive in advancing this proposition as both playwrights engage elements of nature in action. It engages eco-criticism which is a viable literary theory for interrogating environmental topicalities in literature. The study, therefore, attempts to engage
activism, which is an ever-growing aspect of the theory using Lawrence Buell‘s second - wave eco-critical postulation, by first establishing nature as an active character from the position of passiveness in ecological discourses, and then examining how she reacts to degradation and injustice meted on her. The study suggests, by way of critical di scourse and analysis, that eco-criticism is a literary discipline that can be broadened as ecological issues develop. It also advances the idea that the expressions and resistance to environmental degradation is not a human affair only, but that of nature also.