Disrupting Patriarchal Discourses: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gendered Resistance in Lara Owoeye’s Another Wives’ Revolt and Kowode

Abstract

This study examines how gendered resistance is linguistically and discursively constructed within patriarchal Nigerian contexts, using Lara Owoeye’s plays, Another Wives’ Revolt and Kowode. Drawing on Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the study interrogates how characters challenge hegemonic masculinity, negotiate power, and assert agency through strategic language use. The analysis focuses on key discursive features such as transitivity, mood and modality, revealing how patriarchy is discursively reinforced through traditional, religious, and cultural norms, and how it is simultaneously subverted through language use, collective protest, and discursive activism. Findings show that Owoeye’s female characters resist their marginalisation not only through overt defiance but also through calculated linguistic strategies and collective feminist mobilisation. The study challenges the portrayals of women in African drama as passive or domesticated, offering instead a nuanced representation of women as discursive agents of sociopolitical change. This study contributes to feminist literary scholarship and highlights the emancipatory potential of language in confronting gender-based oppression.