Contentious Sexual Space and the Dialectics of Libidinal Politics in Tracy Chima Utoh-Ezeajugh’s Drama (original) (raw)

2018, Theatre, Counter Terrorism and the Nigerian Space

Privileging is arguably essentially natural in most gender discourses, for beyond any facile argument, gender discourses are primarily concerned about social construction, reconstruction or deconstruction of gender narrativity. For instance, even in Derridian dialectics of rupturing, where the assumed ‘logo-centre’ is to be eliminated for a privileged ‘free-play’ of ‘signs’, and where the logo-centre could be seen as representing patriarchy (a god) while the emerging world of free-play could be feminist’s or, perhaps, genderless, free-play is essentially privileged above logo-centrism. In essence, fundamental to any narrativity is privileging, be it covert or overt (Ojoniyi, 2017). And, taking Tracy Chima Utoh-Ezeajugh’s selected plays as representing dramatic narrativity of prevailing contentious gender relationship, how is privileging employed by her to foreground the dialectics of libidinal politics of power and economic survival in the home, at work and in public spaces between men and women in the plays? How is such libidinal politics played against the backdrop of resistance and the forceful renegotiation of power and economic balance between the two sexes in the plays? Are there ways through which ‘signs’ and their ‘significations’ are subtly employed to privilege women’s interests above men interests in the plays? And, how contentious are such ‘signs’ and ‘significations’ to resolving gender conflicts within real-time social realities in Nigeria and perhaps, in Africa? These are part of the issues that are critically examined in this paper based on the theory of dialectical-text-consciousness.