Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
Recent Nigerian poetry in English seems to concern itself with the most pressing socio-political condition in Nigeria, especially the prolonged military despotism in the past decades whose consequences are still felt in the society. One of the strategies the poets use to dramatise and historicise th...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra
2011-06-01
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| Series: | e-cadernos ces |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/eces/697 |
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| Summary: | Recent Nigerian poetry in English seems to concern itself with the most pressing socio-political condition in Nigeria, especially the prolonged military despotism in the past decades whose consequences are still felt in the society. One of the strategies the poets use to dramatise and historicise the situation is the dialogic approach. Their poetry reveals a dialogue between the poet and the people, and between the poet and the despot. The poem that emerges from this act of dialoguing, it will be seen, is conditioned by how the poet perceives the personae with whom he dialogues, i.e. the dialogue between the poet and the people and the dialogue between the poet and the despot differ. The poem is also polyphonic, able to depict to a greater degree the social contradiction in an oppressed society. Using selected poems of younger Nigerian poets, I intend to show the process – and the possible effects – of this dialogisation in recent Nigerian poetry. |
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| ISSN: | 1647-0737 |