SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Igbo, African & Chinese Studies

CONTRIBUTORS:

EZE, P.C
NWOKOYE, A.N

ABSTRACT:

This research looks into Aesthetics of Dream in the selected Igbo plays. Igbo plays are replete with dreams. Igbo playwrights use different styles in the composition of their plays but the uttermost use of dream to achieve the dramatic technique of foreshadowing has become a common style by most Igbo playwrights. Dream is perceived by people from different or varied angles. Dream is seen especially as a foreshadower as well as a means to apprehend reality. This natural or conventional concept of dream advanced its meaning in Igbo literary scene when incorporated in Igbo plays. Previous researches on dream in Igbo literary drama concentrated on dream as foreshadowing or as omen and also former researches on the selected texts were not emphatically on dream as a form of achieving dramatic techniques. It is against this backdrop that the researcher carried out the present study; by selecting some Igbo plays like Ogbu Mmadx Ndx na-Agx, Ajqnwa A na-Eku n’Ikpere, Nwata Bulie Nna ya Elu, Ezindx, Qnqdx Ugo ad[gh[ Egbe Mma, Nkiruka, Obidiya, Adaakx, Nwata Rie Awq and Qkx Ghara Ite with the aim of knowing how dream employed by Igbo playwrights enhance their style of writing and help to achieve other dramatic techniques beyond foreshadowing. By so doing, Igbo literary artists, Igbo scholars, readers and audience will appreciate the beauty of dreams as regards to literature. The study attained this goal by reviewing related literature. This is a qualitative research.The methodology adopted in this research is the descriptive survey because there are many plays in Igbo that feature dreams but ten texts out of them were selected for analyses. The theoretical framework of this study is based on psychoanalysis, and surrealism. These critical approaches were used to buttress the fact of the matter. The findings of the study were that dream naturally occurs in human and could change the mood of an individual or character. The playwrights consciously apply it in their works but unconsciously enhancing their literary technique. Again, dream in Igbo plays have become common style of achieving effect by playwrights. Also, the meaning of the entire work is sometimes derived from the dream contents as the plot of the work is structured accordingly. The researcher therefore, suggests that dreams are so basic and universally operative that creative artists should see it as a veritable instrument of achieving effect on their audience/reader and by so doing, the aesthetic nature of their works remain standard.