15-02-2013, 01:51 PM
Mapping Nigerian Literature
Abstract
The discursive formation within which Nigerian literature emerged as a complex of diverse literary forms was one governed by an ethic of verbal artistry with strands that have resulted in discernable changes and continuities between the oral mode of the indigenous society and its more prestigious written counterpart of contemporary times. What this implies is that Nigerian literature like the literatures of other human societies has both an oral and a written category with the former predating the latter. The non-literate societies of pre-colonial Nigeria operated an oral literary culture (orature or oral literature) that consisted of poetry, folksongs, myths, legends, folktales, proverbs and other forms of dramatic and theatrical productions (Akporobaro 2001, 2008; Finnegan 1970). With the coming of Islam and Christianity, the introduction of literacy in Arabic and English and the advent of colonial rule, the artistic landscape broadened. The rise of Nigerian literature on the template provided by these developments is the subject of this introductory study.