Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing
Subtitle: Orality and History in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, and Ben Okri
By: Ato Quayson.
Publisher: J. Currey; Indiana University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Oxford; Bloomington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 180
Subjects: Soyinka, Wole -- Knowledge -- Folklore.; Tutuola, Amos -- Knowledge -- Folklore.; Okri, Ben -- Knowledge -- Folklore.; Johnson, Samuel, d. 1901.; Nigerian literature (English) -- History and criticism.; Literature and folklore -- Nigeria.; Literature and history -- Nigeria.; Yoruba (African people) -- Historiography.; Oral tradition -- Nigeria.; Nigeria -- Historiography.
Description: This is an innovative and original study which offers a new perspective on a Nigerian literary tradition. The author takes issue with the prevalent use of "oral tradition" in the criticism of Europhone written literature as a kind of cultural matrix out of which the written text emerged, and the essence of which it embodies. He proposes instead a view of literary tradition as the outcome of numerous, and varied, strategic acts of positioning in relation to indigenous resources — which vary according to the individual writer's project but also according to the larger social and political context. He constructs a historical framework in which to view these strategies as performed by Samuel Johnson in _The History of the Yorubas_ (1921 [1897]), Amos Tutuola (1950s), Soyinka (1960s and 70s) and Ben Okri (1980s and 90s).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-176) and index.