"Shavianism or "Butakeism”: A Comparative Reading of Female Identities in George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and Bole Butake's and Palm Wine Will Flow”

Abstract

This article entitled "Shavianism or "Butakeism”: A Comparative Reading of Female Identities in George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and Bole Butake's And Palm Wine Will Flow” examines the strength and power of the woman in the plays of the English playwright, George Bernard Shaw and the Anglophone Cameroonian playwright, Bole Butake. In other words, the article undertakes a comparative analysis of the vision of both authors especially as far as the plight of the woman is concerned in their respective societies. Based on the assumption that, Shavian and "Butakean” dramas are platforms for revolutionary ideas aimed at a subtle but sometimes cataclysmic transformation of consciousness towards the power structures that demean and debase women, the article posits that Shaw and Butake are two dramatic iconoclasts whose plays redefine the female identity and distorts all institutions that cripple women in all domains of life. Seen from the perspective of Marxist feminism, the article studies both playwrights as revolutionists who believe in the power of the woman and seek to redefine misguided opinion about the female sex in their different societies. In spite of the fact that they hail from vastly different planes of realities and that they wrote in different eras, the study underscores the fact that the thematic concerns of the two playwrights are both identical and contemporary. The traditional mores that plague the societies of both authors are examined in this article in a bid to indicate that for Shaw and for Butake, all traditional and cultural norms that do not lead to the progress of mankind should be dismantled.