POSTCOLONIAL READING OF WOLE SOYINKA’S THE LION AND THE JEWEL AND JEAN PLIYA’S LA SECRÉTAIRE PARTICULIÈRE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/aj.v1i148.4375Keywords:
Context, Content, Postcolonial theory, Deconstruction, StylisticsAbstract
In literary criticism, both the context and the content of a given text; speech, graph, image, or picture are essential. It is the totality of these two elements that pave the way for a better understanding of any given text. Hence, since the purpose of every communication or speech act is comprehension, this study examines the stylistic profile of Wole Soyinka and Jean Pliya in The Lion and the Jewel (1964) and La secrétaire particulière (2001) respectively. The study adopts the French ‘explication de texte’ technique as its methodology to carry out a textual analysis of the two selected plays. As a theoretical framework, the study uses Edward Said and Homi Bhabha’s Postcolonial theory which interrogates the effects of the interactions between the centre and the margin with the view to reconstructing the worldview on matters of history, race, identity, and culture. Findings reveal that in resisting colonial domination and imposition, the two African playwrights take advantage of linguistic manipulations in the composition of their literary texts. With the application of transliteration, direct translation, proverbs, figures of speech, allusions, lexical borrowing, and grammatical and phonemic corruption, the writers are able to foreground their intention to post-colonialize and africanize their literary works.
Downloads
References
Atolagbe, A. A. (2001) Practical Spoken English. Fakoya, Adeleke, A. and G. O. Osoba (Eds.). The English compendium, Vol. 1 & 2. Lagos State University, pp. 20 – 28.
Ayeleru, L. B. & Edonmi, C. (2009) Sony-Ciano Soyinka, two of a kind: a stylo-linguistic analysis of selected works of Wole Soyinka and Sony Labou Tansi. Kamla-Raj Journal of SocialSciences18.3: pp. 151-156.
Azeez, T. (2001) Cultural content of Wole Soyinka’s Works. Fakoya, Adeleke, A. and G. O. Osoba (Eds.). The English compendium, Vol. 1 & 2. Lagos State University, pp. 301 – 307.
Bello, R. O. (2001) Lexical Studies in English. Fakoya, Adeleke, A. and G. O. Osoba (Eds.). The English compendium, Vol. 1 & 2. Lagos State University, pp. 90 – 101.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994) The location of culture. London: Amazon.
Gulere, C. W. (2000) Orature, and Human Development: The Significance of Proverbs and Riddles in Poverty Eradication. Makarere: Makarere University.
Kamalu, I. (2018) Stylistics: theory and practice. Ibadan: Kraft Books.
Ojaide, T. (1994) The poetry of Wole Soyinka.Lagos: Malthouse Press.
Pliya, J. (2001) La secrétaire particulière. Yaoundé: Edition CLE.
Said, E. W. (1978) Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
Simpson, Paul (2014) Stylistics: A resource book for students. London: Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
Sonderling, S. (2009) Media, language and discourse. Pieter J. Fourie, (Ed.). Media studies: Media content and media audience. Cape Town: Juta & Company, pp. 83 – 115.
Soyinka, W. (1964) The Lion and the Jewel. London: Oxford University Press.
Syal, P. D. and Jindal, D. V. (2010) An introduction to linguistics: Language, grammar, and semantics. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private.
Toolan, M. (1988) Narrative: A critical linguistic introduction. London: Routledge.
Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Sikiru Adeyemi OGUNDOKUN
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright and Licensing:
For all articles published in Al-Adab journal, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work.
Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers: It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyrightholder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyrightholder).
Permission is required for: Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
Substantial extracts from anyones' works or a series of works.
Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Permission is not required for: Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.
Obtaining Permission
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Al-Adab Journal cannot publish material from other publications without permission.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.
How to Cite
