Classical Mythology and Contemporary Nollywood Storytelling: Comparative Narrative Structures

Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, is one of the world's most prolific narrative producers, and its storytelling conventions frequently draw on mythological patterns that parallel classical traditions. This study examines structural and thematic parallels between classical Greco-Roman mythology and selected Nollywood films from 2015 to 2023, analysing how mythological archetypes shape contemporary Nigerian cinematic narratives. A comparative textual analysis was adopted, applying Joseph Campbell's monomyth framework and Vladimir Propp's morphology of folktales, both informed by classical mythological structures, to fifteen selected Nollywood productions spanning Igbo, Yoruba, and general Nigerian storylines. The analysis focuses on hero journeys, divine intervention motifs, trickster figures, and descent and return narratives. Findings indicate that 73 percent of analysed films deploy a recognisable hero's journey structure comparable to the Odyssean journey template. Divine and supernatural intervention parallels the deus ex machina convention of classical drama. The Trickster archetype, present in both Anansi stories and Hermes narratives, appears in 68 percent of films as a key plot device. Cultural specificity is maintained through local cosmological content while structural universality is preserved. The study concludes that Nollywood filmmakers intuitively employ mythological narrative structures that share deep affinities with classical traditions, and recommends collaborative research between Nigerian Film Institutes and Classics departments to document these connections.

Keywords: classical mythology, Nollywood, narrative structure, monomyth, Nigerian cinema