Symbolic water imagery in the drama of J. P. Clark-Bekederemo

Abstract

This essay examines symbolic water imagery in the drama of J. P. Clark-Bekederemo. It is necessitated by the lack of a critical enquiry into that aspect of the renowned dramatist’s creative use of water imagery, its literal and figurative counterparts having been examined already. Hinged on the theory of imagery, the study observes that Clark-Bekederemo is adept at manipulating locally-derived imagery in his drama, and that water imagery forms the nucleus of that local imagination. The study discovers that the symbolic water images used in the plays are largely conventional, but that in spite of their conventionality, the playwright deploys them to such private purposes as the enhancement of the plays’ tragic import, the reinforcement of their Ijaw settings, and the enunciation of the socio-religious and cultural life of the same society, whose citizens constitute the bulk of the plays’ dramatis personae. It concludes by stressing that symbolic water imagery is an integral and functional component of Clark-Bekederemo’s dramatic imagination.

Keywords: Imagery, Symbolism, Water, Drama, J. P. Clark-Bekederemo