A general survey of the contemporary Nigerian theatre and drama reveals that several contemporary Nigerian dramatists have harnessed the art of abuse—invectives— as a device for conveying meanings in their works and achieving their satiric goals. These dramatists create characters that engage abuse to articulate the thematic concerns of their drama, accentuate the conflicts in them, and establish the socio-cultural and political setting of their drama. Although extant works on satiric plays have focused on the use of language, and other satiric devices such as grotesque, irony, burlesque, innuendo, sarcasm, among others (Adeoti 1994; Adenigbo & Alugbin 2020; Mireku-Gyimah 2013; Nyamekye & Debrah 2016), sufficient scholarly attention has not been given to the art of abuse as a trope in Nigerian drama. The article explores the artistic significance of abuse and its forms in selected works of two contemporary Nigerian dramatists: Femi Osofisan’s Altine’s Wrath (2002) and Ola Rotimi’s Who is a Patriot? (2006). These two plays are selected because they manifest ample deployment of the art of abuse and engage various sociopolitical issues. Hence, the article discusses how the art of abuse in these plays projects and addresses such sociopolitical realities as oppression, exploitation, resistance, self-interest versus national interest, and capitalism, among others. The article engages the principles of superiority theory of humour as espoused by Henri Bergson (2003) for textual analysis. It contends and concludes that abuse, as an inherent part of social and human interactions, has been an effective tool in satirising ills in individuals and society at large.
One critical area that the poetry of Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide addresses is naturethe physical environment. Hence, their poetry is classified as eco-poetry. Although studies on the poetry of Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide have focused on traditional aesthetics, political power, exile and African experience (Ojaruega, 2015; Tsaaior, 2011;Nwagbara 2008Nwagbara , 2010Okunoye, 2011) sufficient studies have not been done on their defense of natural environment. This study examines how their poetry celebrates nature and how they are used to caution the imminent danger of mismanagement of the physical environment. Thus, Niyi Osundare's The Eyes of the Earth and Tanure Ojaide's Delta Blues & Home Songs are studied to provide insights into the forms, patterns and concerns of their ecopoetry. The study leverages eco-criticism-the study of the relationship between literature and the natural environment-as its theoretical insight. The paper contends that though these poets celebrate nature's beauty and potentials, their poems chastise exploitative activities of man and urge moral and social change in favor of the natural environment. It equally argues that the poets' particular environments influence the form and style of their poetry, maintaining that there are more environmental challenges in the contemporary world of Tanure Ojaide which his poetry reflects in contrast to Niyi Osundare's.
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