Language and the Construction of Multiple Identities in the Nigerian Novel

Romanus Aboh

Description

Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel examines the multifaceted relation between people and the various identities they construct for themselves and for others through the context-specific ways they use language. Specifically, this book pays attention to how forms of identities – ethnic, cultural, national and gender – are constructed through the use of language in select novels of Adichie, Atta and Betiang. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this book draws analytical insights from critical discourse analysis, literary discourse analysis and socio-ethno-linguistic analysis. This approach enables the author to engage with the novels, to illuminate the link between the ways Nigerians use language and the identities they construct. Being a context-driven analysis, this book critically scrutinises literary language beyond stylistic borders by interrogating the micro and macro levels of language use, a core analytical paradigm frequently used by discourse analysts who engage in critical discourse analysis.

Sujets

• Littérature Africaine
• Littérature Africaine

Informations

• Publié par: NISC (Pty) Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781920033354
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Dedication
For my wife, Rita Ititim-Aboh
About the Series
The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality.
Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a manuscript mentor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript.
The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world.
The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa.
AHP Editorial Board Members as at November 2018
AHP Series Editors:
Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa
Consultant:
Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology)
Board Members:
1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa)
2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program)
3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies)
4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies)
5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory)
6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy)
7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History)
8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies)
9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology)
10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics)
11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology)
Published in this series
Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema , 2014
Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014
Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English , 2014
Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe , 2016
Pascah Mungwini, Indigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights , 2017
Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa , 2017
Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse , 2018
Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: the making of an organic intellectual , 2018

Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za
First edition, first impression 2018
Publication © African Humanities Program 2018 Text © Romanus Aboh 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-920033-29-3 (print)
Manuscript mentor: Prof. Harry Garuba Project manager: Peter Lague
Cover design: Advanced Design Group
Printed in South Africa by Digital Action

The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
List of Tables
C HAPTER 1 Introduction
Beyond stylistic rhetoric
Establishing the canon
Identity as a linguistic phenomenon
Theoretical approaches
Socio-ethno-linguistic analysis
Critical discourse analysis
Literary discourse analysis
The selected texts
C HAPTER 2 Constructing ethnic identity
Names as labels of ethnic identity
Circumstantial names and naming
Personality promotion/Ego-boosting names
Names with anti-ethnic/racial sentiments
Who has the right to name whom?
C HAPTER 3 Enacting cultural identity
The bond of language and culture
Loanwords describing food items
Loanwords referring to clothing
Loanwords describing dance/music and supernatural beliefs
C HAPTER 4 Lexical and discursive construction of national identity
Language and nationhood
Nigerianisms
Neologisms/Coinages from existing English words
Loan transfer
Creations from Nigerian linguistic space
Pronominal strategies
Expressing solidarity and collectivity
Polarity and boundary mapping
C HAPTER 5 Language as a marker of gender identity
The juncture of language and gender
Marriage and procreation as identity
Woman-woman oppression
Man-woman subjectivity
C HAPTER 6 Afterword
B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
Acknowledgements
I acknowledge the postdoctoral fellowship support I have enjoyed from the African Humanities Program (AHP), which has offered me several opportunities to learn many things not only about academics, but about life in general. AHP’s interest in supporting and giving budding African scholars the opportunity to advance their careers as well as strengthen African-humanities scholarship call for celebration.
I am particularly thankful to Professor Harry Garuba of Cape Town University, South Africa for critically reading this work. He proffered ideas that helped me to improve the quality of this work. I also wish to thank three people who taught me an immense amount about discourse analysis and pragmatics and how to engage discourses critically from an interdisciplinary perspective: Professors Tayo Lamidi, Obododimma Oha and Akin Odebunmi, all of the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In their respective ways, they contributed significantly to who I have become and what I know about discourse analysis, pragmatics and scholarship.
Professor Joseph Akawu Ushie of the Department of English, University of Uyo, Nigeria, has remained a significant part of my academic career and I am grateful to him. His private library provided the critical materials I depended on to lay the foundation for this book. In the course of writing, I also depended on his rich knowledge of Bette-Bendi cultural semantics. Our constant interactions on ‘where stylistics and discourse analysis parted ways’ further deepened my knowledge about the nexus of language and literature. Another academic who has been extremely supportive is Professor Luke Eyoh of the Department of English, University of Uyo. His kindness and geniality to younger scholars are greatly appreciated. I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Department of English, University of Uyo for the various ways they supported me during the writing of this book. I remember that when I was away at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Julia Udoudom assisted me in grading some of the scripts I could not grade.
In writing this book, I have depended on a platoon of friends with attending ears and urging minds: Happiness Uduk, Richard Akwagiobe, Isidore Adie, Eyoh Etim, Amaka Ezeife, Susan Okocha, Uche Oyali, Prince Wekpa, Charles Akinsete, Toja Okoh, and Mary Specht. Their friendship continues to water me like a tree planted by the riverside.
I am especially grateful to Nathan Suhr-Sytsma, a dear friend. Nathan has been very supportive. Since we met in 2010, Nathan and I have shared many ideas about scholarship and our regular conversations on postcolonial African literature have shaped the way I engage texts, encouraging me to take a more critical perspective. I also thank him so very much for writing this foreword. The contributions of two other people, Funke Oni who read Chapter 2 of