SPACE AND PLACE OF DRAMA IN HEALTH HUMANITIES

Abstract

Poor health is one of the major problems contributing to high mortality rate in Nigeria. Apart from this, there still exists what seems to be an abysmal failure in the health systems. Such failures  as  poorly  equipped  hospitals  and  health  care  centres,  inefficient  staff,  lack  of adequate supervision and poor health communication strategies are notable. The theatre and other humanities, as major stakeholders are not playing aloof to these societal needs. This is evident in the numerous plays, films and performances that are targeted at health situations. Also, various developmental agencies have often used a variety of performance strategies to address diverse health concerns. Ola Rotimi’s Hopes of the Living Dead, Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa,  Henrik  Ibsen’s  Ghosts  and  Arthur  Miller’s  Death  of  a  Salesman  stand  out  as prominent dramatic contributions to health-related issues. Health Humanities as an emerging discipline seeks for a higher convergence between health and humanities. One of the major objectives of the discipline is to seek for the general wellbeing and good health for all. It is evident that both on the stage and on the page the full potentials of these plays with regards to their health imperatives have not been fully unlocked. Previous research carried out on these plays  focused  on other  subjects  treated  by the  playwrights  while  the  health  issues  were vaguely mentioned or even neglected. The aim of this study is to  interrogate the place of drama in addressing  health issues through these plays. This  study adopted the Historical- Descriptive Design. Literary and artistic tools of the qualitative research methodology were employed.  Primary sources were In-Depth  Interviews  (IDIs), play texts and observations. Secondary  sources   were   the  internet,   published   materials   such  as,   journals,   books, undergraduate project reports, dissertations and theses. The theoretical framework that was adopted for this study is Drama Theory and Reader Response Critical Approach. The health issues raised by the playwrights and discussed in this study traverse reproductive and mental health problems all of which form part of major health issues militating against sustainable development in Nigeria today. The texts studied, serve as a deep rooted and timeless historic material  that  reflects  the  fears  of  a world  plagued  by different  sicknesses  and  possible strategies to overcoming current/future health situations. The plays reveal that the collective will of a people to live, plays a key role in wellbeing and good health.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0      Background of the Study

This study examines the role of drama in the quest for health awareness. It discusses the  ways  through  which  drama  as  a medium  of development  communication can bring positive  changes  to  issues  of  health  consciousness   especially  in  terms  of  attitudinal reorientation.  Various  scholars  like  Oga  S.  Abah,  Bene  Madunagu,  James  Alachi,  and Hyacinth  Ichoku  have  provided  strong  evidence  in  their  studies  to  establish  that  the prevalence of Public Health problems in Nigeria today has reached alarming proportions and there is need to seek other  avenues of intervention.  Rosalia Staricoff in Arts in Health: A Review of Medical  Literature  points out that, “The use of literature, creative writing and poetry in mental health services produce significant benefits for both the patient and the care provider. It enables patients to regain control over their mental well-being.”(20) Furthermore, Ikechukwu  Erojikwe,  Ndubuisi  Nnanna  and  Jude  Aguzie  in  Onyekukufa  and  Atu-Mma: Breaking the Barriers of Gender Discrimination  in Health-Related  Indigenous Masquerade Performances note that, “The high prevalence of various health challenges and sickness has contributed to high mortality rates among women and children in Nigeria. Among the causes of this situation are ignorance, illiteracy and lack of access to good health facilities especially among rural dwellers.” (1)

The  need  to  examine  the  oscillating  power  of  drama  in  health  communication, advocacy and promotion  is highly imperative.  The interventionist  approach  which drama adopts will not only inculcate behavioural changes but will also endeavour to progressively bring a permanent solution to health crisis in Nigeria.

Iyorwuese Hagher in Theatre and Community through the Ages observes that:

A look at the Nigerian traditional theatre, literary theatre, and radical theatre, shows each genre as being very effective in taking a particular position that tally with held views on practices and practitioners. It is not a question of right or wrong type of theatre. Essentially the use of theatre  through  the  generations  has  been  to  answer  the  question “theatre for what purpose, and for whom? (3)

In the light of the above, health humanities through drama is pivotal for the eradication of health problems. Health humanities as an emerging discipline attempts to look at areas of convergence  between  health  and  the  humanities.  Paul  Crawford  and  others  in  Health Humanities note that:

There is a growing need for a new kind of debate at the intersection of the humanities and healthcare, health and well-being. In the recent past the field of medical humanities has grown rapidly, but it is timely and appropriate  to  address  the  increasing  and  broadening demand  from other professions to become involved, to accommodate new sectors of the healthcare workforce and the public, and to extend ‘appliedness’ in relation  to  how  arts  and  humanities  knowledge  and  practices  can inform and transform healthcare, health and well-being. (1)

The cross disciplinary approach which health humanities  encourages,  provides  the grounds for theatre artists to become strong players in health practices. Therefore,  theatre, film and various media of the performing arts can be used as strong intervention strategies to curb the menace of health concerns. Furthermore, the question asked by Victor Fuchs quoted by Hyacinth Ichoku “who shall live?” (11), is no longer a  medical declaration alone. The

humanities  and theatre precisely,  has today become a major stakeholder  in the pursuit  of wellness and wellbeing of humanity.

The complexity of healthcare  provision in the light of different illnesses  plaguing mankind  today cannot  exclude  health  humanities  as a reliable  strategy  for  ameliorating ailments that are pervasive in our society today.  Theatre has been identified as that strategy, the missing link that can help  reduce the level of ignorance  and  illiteracy that presently undermine efforts at effective healthcare delivery. Austin Asagba, discussing the power of theatre  to  create  change,  quotes  Irina  Bokova,  Director  General  of  the  United  Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as averring that “Theatre has the power to move, inspire, transform and educate in ways that no other art form can. Theatre reflects both the extraordinary diversity of cultures and our shared human condition, in all its vulnerability and strength.” (18) In view of this Oga S. Abah one of the leading advocates of Theatre for Development (TfD) in “Perspective in Popular Theatre: Orality as a Definition of New Realities.” declares that:

In situations  of  deprivation,  of poverty,  of  disease  and  of  hunger, should  theatre  be complacent  or  should  it be active  in  confronting issues, in shaping and indeed altering ways of thinking and seeing? I should think that theatre needs to declare itself an  active practice in favour of enlightenment and change. This means that theatre should no longer restrict itself to simply reflecting society. It should be engaged in mediating society; and even more, it should be involved in critical intervention. Theatre  should   therefore  be  a  practice  in  search  of solution and action. This implies a new perspective, different from the conception of theatre for entertainment or purgation. (81)

It is pertinent to state that this study will help in establishing that theatre as an art form  can contribute  significantly  in solving  health problems  in our society.  After  careful attempts to isolate the essential questions raised by earlier researchers and practitioners, this research   identifies   a  crucial   need   for   further   interdisciplinary   collaboration   between performance  studies and health research in Nigeria. Chukwuma  Soludo argues that “It has been often said that when a doctor makes a mistake a patient dies, if perhaps an economist makes a mistake a nation dies”. (np) Probably, when a dramatist makes a mistake then the whole  world  may be  in trouble.  The  seeming  mistakes  of  some  playwrights  as we  will discover have contributed to certain misinformation which might be seen as unacceptable.

1.1      Statement of the Problem

There exist so many health conditions that kill people daily in Nigeria. These  health conditions are not limited to Nigeria alone, they are global problems. It could also be due to the problems associated with wellbeing and good health in general that actually motivated the United  Nations  to  include  health  among  the  Seventeen  Sustainable  Development  Goals (SDGs). The World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health as quoted by Richie Umeh in her inaugural lecture titled River Blindness: An  Insight into Community Directed Management of Endemic Diseases states that “health is not just the mere absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing.” (2) So much attention has been paid to particular  health  issues  like   HIV/AIDS,  malaria  and  water  related  diseases  by  health communication practitioners.

This study will therefore evaluate the contributions of drama in health and health-related issues by casting our interest on Ola Rotimi’s Hopes of a Living Dead,  Ama Ata Aiddo’s Anowa, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. These plays have often been neglected as plays illuminating health concerns and as such a study on them will possibly expose how they explore various health issues.

1.2    Research Questions

This study will be guided by the following questions.

1.    What is health humanities?

2.    What is the place of dramatic literature in health humanities?

3.    How do the selected plays stand as examples of works on health humanities?

1.3      Objectives of the Study

The major objective of this study is to interrogate the place of drama in addressing health issues. Health humanities as an emerging discipline seek for a higher convergence between health and humanities. One of the major objectives of the discipline is to seek for the general wellbeing and good health for all.  It is evident that both on the stage and on the page the full potentials of Rotimi’s Hopes of the Living Dead, Aidoo’s Anowa, Ibsen’s Ghosts and Miller’s Death of a Salesman with regards to their health imperatives have not been fully unlocked. Previous  research  carried  out  on  these  plays  focused  on  other  subjects  treated  by  the playwrights while the health issues were vaguely mentioned or even neglected. Therefore, the specific  objectives  of this  research  are: to  examine  the  concept  of health  humanities;  to ascertain the role of dramatic literature in health humanities and to interrogate the selected plays as works on health humanities.

1.4      Significance of the Study

The quest to create a healthy society is one of the biggest challenges Nigeria and most low and medium income countries are facing today. So many people in the past have tried to evaluate drama as a communicative tool in ameliorating these problems. This research seeks in  earnest  to  analytically  assess  the  role  of  drama  in  combating  the  menace  of  health problems in our society. A successful completion of this research will benefit a variety of groups, organizations with similar interest on  development  communication  in general and drama  and  health  communication  in  particular.  Theatre  scholars,  health  agencies,  policy

makers, public health workers, researchers, development agencies, donor agencies and  aid organizations will find this research a valuable contribution to the role of drama in  health communication and health humanities. It is also hoped that this research will  evidence the view that drama as an aspect of the humanities is essential in creating the consciousness of health related problems in our society. Finally the research will also  serve as a reference material for future researches as it is hoped that it will add to the existing body of scholarly work in Health Humanities.

1.5      Scope of the Study

This research will examine the contribution of drama in the health humanities.  For effective understanding,  the researcher will limit the study to Rotimi’s Hopes of a  Living Dead, Aiddo’s Anowa, Ibsen’s Ghosts and Miller’s Death of a Salesman.  However, other works such as Tor Iorapuu’s  Had  I Known,  Emeka Nwabueze’s  Faith  of a Maiden  and Solomom Iganure’s Grave Encounter that refer to health  issue(s) will be used where they help  to clarify our arguments  or objectives  of the  study. In order to add efficacy to this research, the plays of study will be selected from Nigeria, Ghana, United States of America and Norway. The intention is to give a global dimension to the research. Since the researcher shall  examine  emerging   interdisciplinary  studies  like  medical   humanities   and  health humanities, it becomes highly pertinent to look at classical works by committed artists that explicitly treat issues raised by this researcher.

Global trends in healthcare today seek for a serious paradigm shift from biology and medicine to the arts. This has given rise to so many recent strategies  like  entertainment- education, popular theatre, theatre for development and so many more. But this research will concern itself with health humanities;  this is because of its  capacity as a strong agent of change in healthcare today. The research will examine this as we proceed. Other plays that tackle other health issues such as Emeka Nwabueze’s A Dance of the Dead, Ola Rotimi’s

Gods are not to Blame, Femi Osofisan’s No more the Wasted Breed and John Pepper Clark- Bakederamo’s Song of a Goat shall be used to evaluate some of the health challenges in our society.

1.6      Theoretical Framework

The  theoretical  frameworks  that  this  research  will  adopt  are  Drama  Theory  and Reader Response Critical Approach.    The reason for this is that on the one hand,  Drama Theory gives us the opportunity and the motivation to examine the plays as appropriate tools of behavioural change and attitudinal reorientation. The Reader Response Critical Approach on the  other  hand  gives  us the  enabling  environment  to  reread  the play and  find  fresh interpretations  from the reader’s perspective.  In  defining drama theory, Lawrence Kincaid states that:

The    essence    of    drama    is    confrontation,    which    generates emotion. Emotion is the motivational force that drives the action of the characters,   leading  to  conflict   and  its  resolution.   By  means  of involvement   and   identification,   the   confrontation   and   emotional response   of   the   characters   generate   a  corresponding   emotional response in the audience. (150)

Furthermore, this theory will give us the negotiating gambit to analyse the plays as appropriate   tools   of   health   communication.   Drama   theory   as   a   model   system   of communication  identifies  with the notion that we learn from what we see.  According to Kincaid,  drama  theory focuses  on how social  relationships  and  emotions  displayed  in a drama affect audience behaviour.  He argues that “by observing such changes in a drama some audience will undergo the same kind of change themselves.” (46) Kincaid in his article “Drama, Emotion, and Cultural Convergence” also maintains that, “the central idea of drama theory  is  that  under  emotional  pressure  created  by perceived  rigidity  of  their  situation,

players are able to reframe the situation and change.” (139) This situation is applicable  to audience members too. Thus the actor and audience can learn effectively from drama and the knowledge acquired will help to instigate change in behaviour and reorientation in attitudes. Drama theory will therefore help to drive the philosophy of this research to explain how a particular  play can change  relationships  and  behaviours.  Kincaid  explains  that  “when  a character who exhibits undesirable behaviours converts to social desirable behaviour in order to  resolve  a  dramatic  confrontation,  then  the  behaviour  of  the  audience  segment  that identifies  most  closely  with  the  character  is expected  to  converge  towards  the  segment already practicing the desirable behaviour, resulting in an increase in the socially desirable behaviour in the population…” (136) In view of this Esta De Fossard in explaining drama theory acknowledges that the audience will end up:

Observing   what  other   people  do;  considering   the   consequences experienced  by those people; rehearsing what might  happen in their own lives if they followed other people’s behaviour; taking action by trying the behaviour themselves; comparing their experience with what happened  to  the  other  people;  confirming  their  belief  in  the  new behaviour. (58)

The malleability of drama enables the art form to operate in various segments  and provides   it  with  the  enabling  space  and  place  to  function  as  a  powerful   tool  of communication.  Aderaw Genetu  equally maintains  that drama  has a greater  effect on an audience than many other forms of communication. Quoting Kincaid he  notes that “drama tells an engaging story. It involves audience emotionally.  It depicts changes in characters with whom the audience identifies.” (32) To arrive at fresh appreciations of the texts under study and evaluate them within the health environment, the researcher will also be guided by the reader-response  critical framework.  Wolfgang  Iser a leading proponent  of this theory

provides a treatise of the approach in the preface to his book Prospecting:  from  Reader- Response to Literary Anthropology. He states that:

What  has  come  to  be  called  reader-response  criticism  provides  a framework  for understanding  text  processing,  revealing  the  way in which the reader’s faculties  are both acted  upon and  activated.  By putting  the  response-inviting   structures   of  a   literary  text  under scrutiny,   a  theory  of  aesthetic  response   provides  guidelines   for elucidating the interaction between text and reader. (vii)

M.  H.  Abrams  and  Geoffrey  Harpham  in  A  Glossary  of  Literary  Terms  also acknowledge  that  “at  least  to  some  considerable  degree,  the  meanings  of a text  are the “production”  or “creation”  of the individual  reader,  hence that there  is no  one  “correct” meaning for all readers either of the linguistic parts or of the artistic whole of a text” (266). Since  this research  seeks  to  look at Rotimi’s  Hopes  of a  Living  Dead,  Aiddo’s Anowa, Ibsen’s Ghosts and Miller’s Death of a Salesman with the intention to determine the space and place of drama in health humanities it will be necessary to also examine the views of Gerry Brenner in favour of the reader-response theory. He affirms that:

One virtue of reader-response criticism has been its allowance- some would say indulgence- of every reader’s interaction with the text he or she reads. Diverse though reader-response  theorists and  practitioners are,  fundamental   to  the  theory  is  its   seldom-expressed   goal  of democratizing   the   practice   of   literary   criticism.   In   theory   it manipulates  readers  from  subservience  not  only  to  the  meanings assigned to a text by figures of authority and even its author, but also to the authority of the presumably objective text itself… (1)

It could be understood that this critical approach will enable us to critically assess the merit of these plays as works in health humanities. It provides us with enabling space and place to look at the plays again in the bid to see how they function and mediate within the health humanities environment. Ann Dobie in Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Liter ary Criticism affirms that:

The name  reader-response  tells the story.  This  approach  to  literary criticism turns the spotlight on the reader, without whose attention and reaction the text would be inert and   meaningless.   In   one  sense  the work will not exist at all. (129)

1.7      Research Methodology

The method which a researcher adopts is dependent upon the type of research he is carrying  out.  This  work  involves  both observation  and  interpretation.  Research  can  also define research as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. Research may either be qualitative or quantitative but this study is more  concerned with  the  qualitative  aspect  of  research.  Qualitative  research  attempts  to  broaden  and/or deepen our understanding of how things came to be the way they are in our social world. All research, whether quantitative or qualitative must involve an explicit, disciplined, systematic approach  to finding things out, using the method  most  appropriate  to the question being asked. Beverley Hancock and others submit that,  “Qualitative  research is concerned  with developing explanations of social phenomena. That is to say, it aims to help us to understand the social world in which we live and  why things are the way they are.” (7) Qualitative research is designed to reveal a target audience’s range of behaviour and the perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues. It uses in-depth studies of small groups of people to guide and support the construction of hypotheses. The results of qualitative research

are  descriptive  rather  than  predictive.  The  aim  of  a qualitative  research  may  vary  from research to research.

This research will also explore the potentials of the literary research  methodology perceivable in the qualitative research. In view of that, Guijuan Lin in “Higher Education Research Methodology-Literature Method” states that:

Literary research  methodology  is to read  through,  analyze  and  sort literatures in order to identify the essential attribute of materials. Its significant  difference  from  other  methodologies  is  that  it does  not directly deal with the object under study, but to  indirectly access to information from a variety of literatures, which is generally referred to as “non-contact method.” Literature materials are the crystallization of wisdom, are the ocean of  knowledge,  have important values for the development of human society, history, culture and research scholars. (1)

This methodology empowers academic researchers to fully share information and to understand what our predecessors have achieved and the progress made by other researchers. However, in the ocean of knowledge of such a vast amount of information, a good academic study  tends  to  manage   data  efficiently  and  concisely  in  order  to   achieve   a  good comprehension.  This research identified four plays that have been  more often read from a particular view point with the intention to delineate them as plays that deal with health issues as well. The researcher intends to interrogate these texts with the intention to negotiate their space and place within the confines of Health humanities. In this view, the study will attempt a re-reading of Ola Rotimi’s  Hopes of a  Living Dead, Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman with the intention of analysing and deriving alternative issues of health elaborately treated in these works. An alternate reading

of these plays will lead us to discuss health perspectives treated  in them which are  often neglected in critical analysis of the plays.

An attempt  will be made to interrogate  how these plays traverse  health issues  in relation to humanities. This is not to say that this research is trying to discover what is not obviously mentioned in other works. Rather it is the intention of this present  discourse to bring to the fore issues that seem often neglected by previous scholars and critics who have studied these plays in the past. This research will therefore, try to discuss in detail and distil copious illustrations from the plays that place them as ideal works on health communication and  health  humanities.  The interpretation  of the  primary plays  in this study demands  in greater  measure  a more  elaborate  research  methodology  that  will  incisively  unearth  the particularities of the thematic motifs in these plays that seem not to have been treated without depth and weightiness. It becomes appropriate to include the plays’ full ramifications on the degenerating state of health care delivery as a process of ensuring care, love and wellbeing for the sick and feeble in our society. For instance, in Ola Rotimi’s Hopes of the Living Dead, the ailment of Harcourt White’s and other lepers’ have been generally treated as a political metaphor  rather  than  a  very  specific  debilitation  of  the  body  that  has  drastically  and negatively affected the survival and sociological advantage of the lepers in a discriminatory setting. In view of this, health humanities as a distinct practice in the  delivery of medical service and health promotion seeks for convergence in a globalized world where synergy and teamwork are key to sustainable development.

The colonial  government  did not seek to alleviate  the physical challenge  of  their suffering as a consequence of leprosy or empower them with basic infrastructure to overcome the psychological effects of stigmatization through a specialized housing and health facility dedicated to their wellbeing. Instead, it cast them off as refuse unfit for  cohabitation with other humans. By using qualitative research to interrogate the lepers’  problem for what it

truly is a health problem in need of a convergence of medicine and social re-orientation, this research methodology  is apt for proper  contextualizing  of the  lepers’  problem  as  a case requiring urgency and broad spectrum solution.

By elevating the voice of the lepers as a microcosm of a globalized menace among humans (sick and potentially ill), one can discover new paths and open up new  vistas for problem-solving  in a broader  and easier  sense.  Applying  the qualitative  literary research methodology does not stop at discussing the plays and the various health themes they discuss as ramifications  and symbols for political or social re-engineering.  Rather,  it pursues the literal malady of the characters in the play texts, by extension our current society as a sick people requiring the attention of an apathetic  society to  honestly pay attention to a more robust means of solving their problems.

As   stated   earlier,   qualitative   literary   research   methodology   probes   into   the motivations,  the  application  and  current  relevance  or  lessons  of  the  play  to  the  extant challenges and how their interpretation or new interrogation can help our ailing world. Over the years, Willy Loman’s character in Miller’s Death of a Salesman has been treated with near disdain  in the post depression  era. He stands as a product of  society obsessed  with instant  and  great  wealth  at  any  cost.  Willy  Loman  was   such  a  man  who  suffered psychologically for his inability to realize his expectations which clearly was sold to him by the society which inculcated the illusory American dream to its individual constituents. Willy Loman in the recent past has been praised by many scholars and critics as a hero a tragic hero; Willy Loman  in comparison  to  Oedipus  has no nerve, courage  or idea of heroism. Firstly his goal of being liked and  the pursuit of success were anything but repulsive and vain.  We are almost encouraged to emulate this nature of vanity which in itself was an asset that served to ultimately deal a fatal blow to its icon Willy Loman. Rather than treat Willy Loman as a hero, he should be considered as sick as Harcourt White and his fellow lepers, as sick as Oswald, Anowa and Kofi Ako.

Their debilitation whether physically,  physiologically or psychologically  should  be seen as an infirmity and should attract our sympathy and empathy. Their existential struggle and the society’s aversion and indifference  to the sick and potentially tragic  personalities among and around us should be challenged. Although the plays chosen for this research work are drawn from several and different times, cultures, continents and vary thematically at least in emphasis and depth, they have a universal appeal to the researcher, which is that they treat the issue of health, wellness and wellbeing. The diversity of the plays and their socio-cultural ramifications can aptly be covered by the dynamic qualitative research. Qualitative research holds that understanding of a phenomenon or a concept or event comes from exploring the totality of the situation.  Through the qualitative  research method,  this research work will attempt to address the place of drama in addressing health issues. The researcher will seek to trace the roles drama has played over time in human history and endeavour to ascertain its capacity  and  viability  in  taking  on  health  problems  especially  in  contemporary  times. Qualitative  research method has various tools at its disposal to ensure credible  evidence- based research and findings.

The play Ghosts does not mention the venereal disease syphilis; but its symptoms are spelt out. Through this chosen research method, the researcher seeks to study the Norwegian culture in the 19th  century and their understanding of the place of syphilis in their social or cultural framework. This will answer why the disease was chosen by the  playwright  as a theme and symbol in the play and whether it is pre-eminently relevant. The place of the play as a vehicle for inquiring into health humanities and its effect in the present circumstances would be explored. One of the many criticisms heaped on Ibsen is the supposition in Ghosts that syphilis is inherited.

A critical analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman offers a reader or audience with the possibility of multiple interpretations as to why Willy Loman ended up a nervous wreck.  By taking  cognizance  of  the  period  of writing  the  play,  the  cultural  values  that prompted  the  work  to  be  written  and  by extension  the  character  of  Willy  Loman  the implication and relevance of the play as a tool for a discourse on health humanities will be researched upon through the application of qualitative research method. By digging through massive volumes of historical data and comparing current cultural signage, it becomes clear that the qualitative research methodology is an appropriate means of finding new answers or proving the older assumptions.

It is necessary  to state the relevance  of dramatic  literature in the interrogation  of contemporary issues like the new discourse of health humanities. An unalloyed investigation of its contribution to arts and other spheres of knowledge will become imperative especially in the light of declining emphasis on the scribal tradition. This research will sift through data: historical  documents,  ancient  writings,  print  and  electronic  media  in order  to  effectively gauge  the  significance  or  otherwise  of  dramatic  literature  and  subsequently  its place  in promoting   such   interdisciplinary   challenge   and  discourse   such  as  health   promotion, entertainment-education,  medical  humanities,  health humanities  and  other  innovation  that emphasizes synergy and collaboration between the arts and sciences.

Furthermore,  while  health  humanities  as  a  discipline  seems  exciting  as  another brainchild  of  cross-disciplinary  research,  one  may  wonder  how  classical  and  culturally- divergent plays like Hopes of the Living Dead, Anowa, Ghosts and Death  of a Salesman found their ways into the category of health humanities. To determine the basis or parameters for subjecting these seemingly different plays into one classification, other points and aspects of  qualitative   research   methodology   will  be  pursued   ranging  from  grounded   theory foundational research, philosophical and critical social research methodologies among others may be employed  to generate and holistically present precise findings and  evidence-based result.

Qualitative   research  methodology  continues  to  expand  its  horizons  and   reach including borrowing from its predecessor quantitative research methodology to  buttress its point especially as it relates to case studies. To analyse qualitative data, that  will form the remaining  part  of this  study,  the  researcher  seeks  meaning  from  all  of  the  data  that  is available to him as the research progress on in order to make informed choices and create a platform  for  further  detailed  research  on  the  subject  at  hand.  The  qualitative  research methodology  will  therefore  be  adopted  for  this  study while  the  literary  method  of data analysis will be used as an appropriate tool of the qualitative methodology that will aid this study. The materials  for this research will be  collected  through  libraries,  internet,  plays, magazine, journals, in-depth interviews (IDIs) and email interviews. The Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation style will be used to provide written acknowledgement of sources of information.

This study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter introduces the study. It also discussed  the Problem  of Study, stated the Research  Questions,  Objectives  of the  Study, Scope  of  Study,  Significance  of  the  Study,  Theoretical  Framework  and  the  Research Methodology. The second Chapter is the Review of Related Literature.  The third chapter will discuss role of drama in the emerging discipline of health humanities and look at plays like Solomon Iguanre’s Grave Encounter, Tor Iorapuu’s Had I Known, Ola Rotimi’s The Gods are not to Blame, John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo’s Song of a Goat, Femi Osofisian’s No More the Wasted Breed, Emeka Nwabueze’s Fate of a Maiden and A Dance of the Dead that have treated various health issues. The fourth  chapter will analyse the space and place of drama in health humanities using the primary texts selected for the study. The fifth chapter which is the last will conclude the study and offer some recommendations.

The next chapter is the Review of Related Literature. Previous works on Ola Rotimi’s Hopes  of the Living  Dead,  Ama Ata Aidoo’s  Anowa,  Henrik  Ibsen’s  Ghost  and  Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman will be analysed. Critical interpretations by scholars and critics on the plays under study will also be discussed in this chapter

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