Sophocles’ Antigone and Gender Resistance in Contemporary Nigerian Female Writing

Sophocles' Antigone has been a touchstone text for feminist literary theory and postcolonial gender studies since the late twentieth century, read as a narrative of female moral courage confronting patriarchal state authority. This study examines the resonance of Antigone's themes of gender resistance and female moral autonomy in contemporary Nigerian female writing from 2015 to 2023. A comparative literary analysis methodology was adopted, applying feminist classical reception theory to five novels and short story collections by Nigerian female writers including Akwaeke Emezi, Ayobami Adebayo, and Lola Shoneyin, identified as engaging themes of female resistance to authoritative patriarchal or state power. Close reading of Antigone alongside selected fictional passages examined structural parallels in narrative, characterisation, and thematic development. Findings indicate that several Nigerian female writers deploy Antigone-type narratives of principled female defiance against legally or socially enforced injustice, with particular resonance in narratives of women confronting religious authority, domestic violence law, and state surveillance. The Creon figure is consistently reinterpreted as either an overbearing male family member or a corrupt state institution. The study concludes that Antigone's structural narrative of gendered resistance translates productively across cultural contexts and that Nigerian female writers constitute a significant body of contemporary classical reception activity worthy of academic attention.

Keywords: Sophocles, Antigone, gender resistance, Nigerian female writing, feminist reception