Developing an Original Theory of the Relationship Between Nollywood Film and Nigerian Literary Fiction

The relationship between Nollywood's cinematic storytelling tradition and Nigerian literary fiction represents a major comparative media and literary question that has been addressed descriptively rather than theoretically in existing scholarship. This study developed an original theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between Nollywood film narrative and Nigerian literary prose fiction, examining questions of influence, genre formation, formal exchange, and cultural function. A comparative media and literature theory methodology drawing on adaptation theory, narrative theory, film semiotics, and African cultural studies was employed. The primary research component comprised structured interviews with 30 Nollywood directors, screenwriters, and actors who had formal literary training, alongside 22 Nigerian novelists who had engaged with Nollywood either as scriptwriters or as readers of Nollywood's cultural influence. Textual analysis was conducted on 15 novel-film relationship pairs where a novel and a Nollywood film treat the same subject, historical event, or cultural phenomenon. The original Nollywood-Literature Interface Theory proposes four relationship types: adaptational transformation (where literary texts become Nollywood scripts), narrative crossflow (where story patterns migrate between literary and cinematic modes), genre formation sharing (where genres develop simultaneously in both media), and audience feedback loops (where Nollywood audience responses reshape literary production). Original contributions include the concept of the Nollywood Narrative Grammar, a set of storytelling conventions shared between the two media that constitutes a distinctly Nigerian popular narrative tradition. Expert review by 20 scholars confirmed the framework's original contribution to Nigerian comparative media studies.

Keywords: Nollywood, Nigerian literary fiction, comparative media, original theory, adaptation