Stylistic Approaches to Nigerian Fiction

Drawing on the discipline of stylistics, this book introduces a series of methodological tools and applies them to works by well-known Nigerian writers, including Abani, Adichie and Okri. In doing so, it demonstrates how attention to form fosters understanding of content in their work, as well as in African and postcolonial literatures more widely.

It provides exactly the kind of methodological linguistic readings that scholars interested in African literature, postcolonial studies and literary criticism in general will find enriching and a useful supplement to existing literary interpretations. Tunca's combination of humour and pithy directness makes her book eminently readable, as well as being an informative and provocative intervention into Nigerian literary criticism. (David Firth, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2015)

"In discussing writers who belong to the 'post-Achebean' generation of Nigerian writing from the perspective of what its author terms 'African stylistics', Stylistic Approaches to Nigerian Fiction fills a notable gap in research. This book is distinguished by the author's concern to relate stylistic analysis to social and cultural specificities, by her exemplary exposition of the theories to which she has recourse, and by an eloquent lightness of touch that makes reading her work a pleasure. Stylistic Approaches to Nigerian Fiction deserves recognition in the wider field of post-colonial writing." Professor Geoffrey Davis, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Autorentext
Daria Tunca works in the English Department of the University of Liège, Belgium. Her research focuses on stylistic approaches to African literatures, with a particular emphasis on contemporary Nigerian fiction.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Towards an 'African Stylistics'? Historiographical and Methodological Considerations 2. Of Palm Oil and Wafers: Characterization in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus 3. 'The Other Half of the Sun': Ideology in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun 4. Art is a Journey: Metaphor in Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within and Dangerous Love 5. 'Bi-textual' Poetics: Investigating Form in Chris Abani's Becoming Abigail 6. Children at War: Language and Representation in Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation and Chris Abani's Song for Night Conclusion Bibliography Index