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: Sule Emmanuel Egya
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2011-06-01
Series:e-cadernos ces
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/eces/697
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author Sule Emmanuel Egya
author_facet Sule Emmanuel Egya
author_sort Sule Emmanuel Egya
collection DOAJ
description 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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spelling doaj-art-c66ae1ac83d142cba795263ee07db8ec2025-08-20T02:22:02ZengCentro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbrae-cadernos ces1647-07372011-06-011210.4000/eces.697Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetrySule Emmanuel EgyaRecent 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.https://journals.openedition.org/eces/697dialogicintersubjectivityNigerian poetrysocial commitmentdespotism
spellingShingle Sule Emmanuel Egya
Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
e-cadernos ces
dialogic
intersubjectivity
Nigerian poetry
social commitment
despotism
title Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
title_full Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
title_fullStr Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
title_full_unstemmed Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
title_short Poetry as Dialogue: A reading of recent Anglophone Nigerian poetry
title_sort poetry as dialogue a reading of recent anglophone nigerian poetry
topic dialogic
intersubjectivity
Nigerian poetry
social commitment
despotism
url https://journals.openedition.org/eces/697
work_keys_str_mv AT suleemmanuelegya poetryasdialogueareadingofrecentanglophonenigerianpoetry