Female Narratives in Nollywood Melodramas

By (author) Elizabeth Johnson, Donald Culverson

Not available to order

Publication date:

09 September 2016

Length of book:

180 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498524759

This book investigates how identities for West African women are created and recreated through the broad interplay of Nollywood film viewing on social and individual levels. Since many Nollywood films are freely accessible online, the role of online communities repurposes Nollywood films. Female Narratives in Nollywood Melodramas addresses if this is a good or bad promoter of critical consciousness, as many of the films depict the stifling of women. The authors examine nine Nollywood melodramas through Black feminist, cultivation, audience reception, and social identity theories. Readers will gain an understanding of how Nollywood is a product and contributor to evolving processes of globalization. Recommended for scholars of film studies, communication, African studies, and women studies.

I. Introduction

II. Alternative Frames for Viewing and Thinking about Nollywood Films

III. The Women of Nollywood: Suffering and Agency

IV. Differential Access to Nollywood Films

V. Female Directors and Producers

VI. Concluding Thoughts

Appendix A: Themes of suffering in the nine selected films

Appendix B: Themes of agency in the nine selected films

Appendix C: African/African Diasporic Film Festivals

Appendix D: African female filmmakers

Filmography

Bibliography

About the Authors

Female Narratives in Nollywood Melodramas is a quintessential and compelling interrogation of women’s identity in Nollywood films through the periscopic lenses of culture, tradition, memory, and gender.