Tuesday 25 August 2015

The Performance of New Generational Nigerian novelists using English Language to communicate their views to the world.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study
Literature is the summation of all works
of imagination, oral or written, which manifest and project the life and culture of people. Obichukwu (2009) postulates that literature displays man in his society by trying to explain human experiences and conducts; indicating the past and the present, while peering into the future. Taking the view of Obichukwu, Nwachukwu Agbada in Onukaogu and Onyerionwu (2009: 23) says:  
Unlike the other arts whose raw materials are physical objects, creative writing is an imaginative act whose expression is dependent on words. The painter uses his brush, the carver his knife, the sculptor his clay or wood, but the creative writer, equally an artist makes use of words as his medium of expression. Through the use of the imagination, he selects, orders and interprets life experience, employing words as his basic tool.

Read: EVALUATION OF MALARIA IN PREGNANCY AMONG WOMEN ATTENDING ANTENATAL CLINIC AT FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE 

In their own opinion, Onukaogu and Onyerionwu (2009:23) define literature as:

a branch of art, possessing all the attributes and characteristics of art… like all other branches of art (film, music, stand-up-comedy, drawing, sculpture) is a product of the inspired imagination, which main functions are to entertain, educate, instruct and provide aesthetic satisfaction and unlike other forms of art, it is mainly written while music, dance and stand-up comedy are realized through performances which mostly involve body movement and verbalization.

 On the entertaining nature of literature, Nnolim (2009:3) says that “literature exists to entertain us, and when it entertains us, it enhances our leisure time and gives us pleasure.” So, literature is a “humanistic discipline” for its aim is to improve “man’s lot on earth.” On the aesthetic nature of literature Nnolim (2009:3) adds:
Literature as an art deploys language embellished with pleasurable accessories and it is around the embellished use of language that the creative energy of the story deploys itself. And to invest the story with meaning, there must be some truth about life, something to chew over, some theme, some moral, some philosophy of life, and some metaphor of life that tugs at the edges of a symbol.

Accepting the views of Obichukwu and Nwachukwu Agbada,   Nwahunanya in Onukaogu and Onyerionwu (2009:24) notes that “Literature is an imaginative verbal construct that emerges from the creative consciousness of literary artists.” 
       Nnolim (2009:2) gives a most succinct definition of literature as:
that writing which is more emotionally moving than intellectually instructive; that writing which primarily deals with a make believe world; that writing whose language is highly connotative rather than denotative, symbolic rather than literal, figurative rather than plain; that writing we regard as “verbal works of art”, that writing that is remarked by its fictionality and imaginative import; that writing in which ideas are wrapped up in symbols, images, concepts; that writing which normally catapults us into another world of appearance and reality through the powers of the imagination; that writing in which the aesthetic function dominates; that writing in which the ultimate aim of the author is to produce an object of art

This particular definition captures the whole intent of this exploration because it is all about foregrounding, which takes pleasure in defamiliarization of speech, the otherness of language, literariness and aesthetics.
Looking at Language as an indispensable tool in the hands of a literary artist Wellek and Warren in Nnabuihe (2004 :15) go on to state that:
language is the material of literature as stone or bronze is of sculpture, paints of pictures, or sounds of music. But one should Know that the language is not mere inert matter like stone but is itself a creation of man and is thus charged with the cultural heritage of a linguistic group.

 Agreeing with the above critics, Williams in Emezue (2012) is of the view that the literary artist expresses all these views through language. This means that there is an irrefutable bond between language and literature. In confirming this, Brain (1993:47) adduces that “Literature is a manifestation of verbal culture and cannot be filtered out or separated from language.” This belief gets its highest promotion from Fowler, Leech and Short and Osundare in Emezue (2012:2), when they argue that:
An ideal critic must be grounded in basic linguistics…
must know how language operates…
Every writer must be a linguist. If as a writer you
don’t know anything about linguistics, you are like
a sculptor who doesn’t understand the language of
the wood he is using.

Looking at the symbiotic relationship between language and literature, Leech and Short (1981:2) say that “The smallest detail of language can unlock the soul of a literary work.” Hence, literature is language in use and “man’s supreme use of language is discovered in literature”. In line with this, Emezue (2012:VI) holds that “No serious study of literature is complete without recourse to language.” In discussing language and the fictional world, Leech and Short (1985:150) argue that: “the language of literature cannot be understood without a proper appreciation of how language works:” and in the view of Kehinde in Osunbade (2009:12)
Literature mirrors the events of the past, transmits socio-cultural values and creates great awareness of the tradition of its enabling society. It is expected therefore, that literature finds its expression in language, since the study of language is a complement and aid the study of literature.

Language and Literature are inextricably connected, in the sense than language is the basic raw material or medium, through which literature is produced, whether they are novels or poems, plays or folktales…

Other authorities like Fowler (1971:7) hold the same opinion that literature and linguistics are complementary thus:
…studies of rhythm in Hopkins, syntax in Paradise Lost
or in Henry James, metaphoric structure in Wallac Stevens,
ungrammaticalness in E.E. Cummings and Style in Flaubert
would not be possible without a mastery of linguistics.
Abugu (2010:1) explains the relationship between language and literature comprehensively thus:  
While language is a method of communication, literature is the content being communicated. Language has been described as a set of gestures and words and phrases with meaning behind them; literature is the manipulation and use of those gestures and words and phrases for creative purposes. It is pertinent to say that language enables literature. In literature, language is meticulously crafted. Broadly speaking, ‘literature’ is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction. Literature, in all its forms, cannot exist outside language
Abugu (2010:2) also explicates amply how language functions in literature thus:
In its expressive function, language reports feelings or attitudes of the writer, or of the subject, or evokes feelings in the reader. Poetry is one of the best examples, but most of literature is the expression of emotions, feelings and attitudes. In poetry we can see very clear evidence that language and literature are interwoven. Poetry has to do with language used in a special way. One important way that the meaning of a word is communicated in a poem is through sounds. Words convey meaning denotatively or connotatively. Poets are noted for the use of poetic phrases and images to describe something in literature. Wole Soyinka, in his poem “Telephone Conversation”, uses language to create such images and provide pictures of his encounter with racial discrimination.

To further attest to the indisputable relationship between language and literature, Leech and Short (1981:148) opine that “the language of literature cannot be understood without a proper appreciation of how ordinary language works.”
         In the light of the above, literature involves the manipulation of language for creative purposes.  Chukwukere in Onukaogu and Onyerionwu summarizes all the above views when he says that “Language undoubtedly is the gateway to success in the literary art.” So, the creative artist expresses his feelings, insights, themes and so on, primarily by means of language. (Yankson, 2006)
The discipline which fosters the synergetic relationship between literature and language is stylistics. Stylistics therefore, serves as a ‘buffer’ between literary criticism and linguistics,(Lawal, 1997). Making this assertion more convincingly, Enkivist in Kolawole (1997:1) reiterates: “…through ages, linguists and literary analysts have met and clashed on the territory of stylistics.”  Khaled (online) reaffirms this position when he says that stylistics is an interdisciplinary field because it uses tools and concepts from linguistics and literature. This entails that stylistics uses the tools from literature and linguistics for analysis. It is clear therefore that there is a complementary relationship between linguistics and literary criticism.
Endorsing the above views, Widdowson (1975) describes stylistics not as a subject in its own right but as a connection between two disciplines, linguistics and literary criticism. He clarifies the mediatingfunction of stylistics in the illustration below:


Discipline: Linguistics Literary criticism

        In the view of Bloomfield (1976) stylistics is the study or interpretation of the distinctive linguistic elements in writing of a text and it explains the peculiar choices made by an individual or social group in the use of language in both written and oral texts. 

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