Trojan women in contemporary perspectives: Dual readings of two recent adaptations

Abstract

Adaptation of Classical Greek plays has been with the theatre throughout its development in the west; and has also gained traction in the post-colonies. These adaptations are undertaken by their authors not merely (and/or necessarily) for a form of emergent neo-classicist purpose, but to use them as background texts for making certain salient contributions to the ruling sociopolitical issues within their own societies. This is exactly what Charles L. Mee and Femi Osofian have done in their The Trojan Women 2.0 and Women of Owu respectively, which are re-writings of Euripides' Trojan Women. The thrust of this paper is to use these adaptations to highlight the various permutations of postmodernism and post-colonialism with a view to eliciting a critical interrogation of their points of convergence and divergence. The intention is to draw attention to the variations in the appropriation of various elements of drama within these plays in conformity to the critical "movements" to which we necessarily have to attribute them respectively.