This book investigates how identities for West African women are created and recreated through the broad interplay of Nollywood film viewing on social and individual levels. Since many Nollywood films are freely accessible online, the role of online communities repurposes Nollywood films. Female Narratives in Nollywood Melodramas addresses if this is a good or bad promoter of critical consciousness, as many of the films depict the stifling of women. The authors examine nine Nollywood melodramas through Black feminist, cultivation, audience reception, and social identity theories. Readers will gain an understanding of how Nollywood is a product and contributor to evolving processes of globalization. Recommended for scholars of film studies, communication, African studies, and women studies.

Elizabeth Johnson is an Associate Professor of History and Social Sciences at Governors State University. She is the author of Resistance and Empowerment in Black Women's Hairy Styling. She has published articles in the following journals: World Literary Review, MP: An Online Feminist Journal, and Southwest Journal of Cultures. Her research and speaking interests are grounded in group identity and critical race theory including hair aesthetics, body image, nineteenth-century U.S. history, and media representations of ethnicity and gender. Dr.