Abstract
Drawing inspiration from the dialectic theory of literature; a theory that emphasizes the relationship between content and form in literature, this paper concentrates on the dramatic style of Derek Walcott, Bate Besong, John Nkemngong Nkengasong and Tawfik Al-Hakim vis a vis the canonical dramatic aesthetics prescribed by Aristotle. From a Marxist and New Historicist view of textual analysis, it portrays the importance of aesthetics in revealing the playwright??s ideological and aesthetic visions. The analyses in this paper conclude that though Western art forms and absurdist tendencies have in one way or the other influenced the aesthetic vision of postcolonial dramatists, their plays display a high level of individual creativity and dramatic experimentation as they adopt novel and non-conventional dramatic formulae to convey their messages. Thus, readers and critics prone to canonical (traditional) theatrical formulas will need extra efforts to be able to savour the different levels of meanings in the plays under study as portrayed by their aesthetics. The playwrights?? dramatic style therefore create an alternative tradition which presents drama as formless, a social force and an ideological weapon.
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