An Original Theoretical Framework for Understanding Hybridisation in Nigerian Classical Reception Across Literary and Performing Arts Traditions

Cultural hybridisation, the process by which elements of distinct cultural traditions combine to create new forms with their own aesthetic and social logic, is a central process in Nigerian classical reception and one that requires a dedicated theoretical framework to understand adequately. This study develops an original theoretical framework for understanding hybridisation in Nigerian classical reception across literary and performing arts traditions. A multi-method theoretical-empirical methodology was adopted, combining theoretical engagement with hybridisation theory (Bhabha, García Canclini, Kraidy) with systematic analysis of 45 Nigerian literary and performance works identified as exhibiting classical hybridisation through purposive expert sampling, and ethnographic field observation of eight classical-hybrid performance productions in Lagos, Enugu, and Kano. Interviews with 30 authors, playwrights, directors, and performers provided creative process data. The proposed Classical Hybridisation Theoretical Framework (CHTF) identifies four hybridisation processes specific to the Nigerian context: classical grafting (the embedding of classical formal elements in indigenous narrative structures), strategic ventriloquism (the use of classical figures to voice African political perspectives), cosmological translation (the mapping of classical divinities and metaphysical structures onto African cosmological equivalents), and critical inversion (the deliberate reversal or subversion of classical hierarchies from a postcolonial standpoint). Each process is illustrated through detailed case study analysis. The framework constitutes an original theoretical contribution to global hybridisation theory and to Nigerian Cultural Studies.

Keywords: hybridisation theory, classical reception, Nigerian literature, performing arts, original framework