International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics (IJLLL)

International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics, Volume 6 Issue 1, Complete Issue

Abstract

International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics, Volume 6 Issue 1, Complete Issue

A Comparative Study of Environmental Struggles in the Poetry of Tanure Ojaide and Marilyn Dumont of First Nations (Canada)

Abstract

Earlier studies on the Niger Delta poetry of Nigeria and First Nations poetry of Canada have focused primarily on the environmental and minority concerns in the individual literature of these two regions. The environmental concerns in these two literary traditions are a result of the minority status of the regions with hegemonies depriving the indigenous people of control in the ways their landscapes and waterscapes are engaged. This present study takes these issues to a comparative level, investigating how the two marginal groups are reacting to the hegemonies that pushed them to the peripheries and the aesthetics the selected poets employ to combat local and global environmental changes in their collections. Tanure Ojaide’s Niger Delta Blues and Other Poems, and Dumont Marilyn’s The Pemmican Eaters are comparatively explored with the focus of exposing the similarities and differences in the portraitures of their environments. This study finds that the selected poets from both regions depict the primordial symbiotic relationship that existed between humans and non-humans in their environments, especially prior to the commencement of mineral resources exploitation in their regions. Poems from both regions compare the harmonious past with the disharmony of the present to raise global awareness of the problems caused by capitalist agents in the exploitation of the environment. Similarly, oral traditions are depicted as viable aesthetics which promote the harmonious human-environment relationship. The selected collections of poetry have political undertones and represent the people’s collective aspirations, it is against this that they recreate the myths around their activists and heroes to document the history and raise environmental consciousness among the people. The poets of the two literary traditions compared, however, differ in the following areas: the poets of First Nations are more impressionistic in depicting environmental struggles while Niger Delta poets rely on metaphors and images to portray their environmental struggles. The study concludes that the environmental and minority struggles portrayed in the selected collections show the pursuit of environmental justice for their marginalised regions, and by extension, it is a contribution to the global environmental discourse.

Investigating the Effect of Chart on Second Language (L2) Igbo Learners’ Performance in Igbo Language Word Formation in Nigeria Colleges of Education: A Case Study of Federal College of Education Okene

Abstract

This research study focused on investigating the effect of charts on the second language (L2) Igbo learners in Igbo language word formations in all the colleges of education in Nigeria using Federal College of Education Okene as a case study. Federal College of Education Okene is in the Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi State. It is the general poor performance of all second-language Igbo learners that led to this research work. The researcher thought it wise that the use of instructional materials despite the level might help. With this, this research was carried out on the effect of charts on learners’ performance in Igbo language word formation by second-language Igbo learners in Colleges of Education. This research study has three research questions and three hypotheses that were based on the purpose of the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. The learners were in two groups. The groups are the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group was further subdivided into two groups. They are text chart groups and un-text chart groups. From the population of 130 students, 70 students comprised of 38 females and 32 males were selected. A pre-test and post-test were given. The instrument for data collection was the Performance Test in Igbo Language Word Formation (PTIWF), and which has 20 items multiple questions in it. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypothesis at the level of 0.05. This research study showed that those taught with charts performed better than those taught without charts. Again, the un-text chart group performed better than the text chart group, and the female equally did better than the male counterpart. The researcher equally proffers solutions by giving out some suggestions on the way forward which include that, they curriculum planners should ensure that different instruction materials especially chart is included in their curriculum planning and learners must be involved in the production of their teaching aids.

A Lexico-Semantic Analysis of Eyoh Etim’s Don’t Marry Angelica

Abstract

This work attempts a lexico-semantic analysis of ‘Don’t Marry Angelica’ in order to reveal the author’s creative deployment of language to foreground his pre-determined intentions in the text. The study, which adopts Halliday’s Context of Situation as a theoretical framework, shows how the author uses his vast knowledge of linguistic techniques and fecundity of his mental construct to expose the ills of the African society through the use of figures of speech, connotations, direct translations and creative coinages among others in the text to develop the themes of poverty, under-development and his criticism against stigmatization of adoption, abortion and other social practices against women and children in the society, among others.

Identity Conflicts in Post-Colonial Northern Nigeria: An Example of E. E. Sule’s Sterile Sky

Abstract

Ethnicity and religion have continued to play significant roles in preventing the attainment of national identity in post-colonial Nigeria. Within the ambit of the post-colonial theory, this study examines the concepts of identity and hybridity in the inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations that result in the recurring Northern Nigeria’s violent crises as expounded in E.E. Sule’s novel, Sterile Sky. This study shows that the north of Nigeria has, to a great extent, been unable to achieve a hybridized identity with the rest of the nation. Ethnic and, especially, religious identity remain the preferred identity as well as the primary cause of conflicts in Northern Nigeria. In Sterile Sky, ethnic, and especially religious identity are identified as the preferred identity in the cosmopolitan city of Kano, and the primary cause of conflict in Northern Nigeria. This work is a contribution in providing an understanding of the post-colonial conflicts in Nigeria through literary evaluation.

A Stylistic Appraisal of Selected Poems in Sola Babatunde’s The Valley Of Vision

Abstract

Creative writers, poets, novelists and playwrights deploy linguistic forms that characterise literariness. More specifically, the peculiarity of language use in the poetic genre proves its suitability for stylistic appraisal. We analyse selected poems in Sola Babatunde’s The Valley of Vision from a stylistic point of view to examine how the sociocultural standpoint of the poet is reflected in the poems. Six poems were selected purposively from the poetic collection and analysed using the conceptual bases of rhetoric and lexico-semantic variation. From the data analysis, it was found that elements such as figures of speech, analogy, transfer, idiom and loan words are employed in the text to unveil the linguistic background of the poet, unveil the thematic preoccupation of the poem, stir readers’ emotion and create mental images in the minds of the readers. In conclusion, the use of stylistics as the conceptual basis for the study has revealed the reasons behind the choices made by the poet to attract readers’ attention by making his poems accessible. The use of the tools of rhetoric and lexico-semantics has also revealed some facts about African poetry to facilitate readers’ sense of interpretation.

Nature and Culture: A Comparative Reading of Selected Caribbean Novels

Abstract

This article titled ‘Nature and Culture: A Comparative Reading of Selected Caribbean Novels’ examines the depiction of nature in relation to human culture in Michael Anthony’s The Year in San Fernando (1965), Herbert De Lisser’s Jane’s Career (1972), Earl Lovelace’ The Dragon Can’t Dance (1979) and Rene Maran’s Batouala (1922) to reveal areas where they show sameness in their attempts to evoke human culture with the undercurrent connectedness to nature. The research deploys the insights and poetics of Ecocriticism to the evaluation of the selected texts to demonstrate their signification of the interactivity of nature and culture in their interdependence and mutual constitutiveness in the Caribbean ecosystem. The involvement of man in the exploitation of nature and the effect that it has on the social texture of society is also part of the focus of this paper. The study is situated in the second wave of the literary development of the field, where the purview of Ecocriticism locates vestiges of nature in urban areas. It thus makes for the possibility of analysing works that are not necessarily interested in nature, since the selected texts had been written before the evolvement of Ecocriticism to examine nature-oriented works. In a careful survey of the Caribbean literary works that have been subjected to a comparative lens, the selected texts are found not to have been given nature-oriented attention in a combined form as done in this research. The texts argue that there is a confluence of environment and miscegenation, slavery, identity formation, etc in the understanding of Caribbean literature. This paper posits that writers should reinvent portraying nature, not as a framing device for human culture. This would serve as a stimulus for reorganising Caribbean political thought.