Art and Outrage: A Critical Survey of Recent Nigerian Poetry in English

Egya, Sule Emmanuel

doi:10.2979/ral.2011.42.1.49

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Egya (2011b) discerns commitment in the metaphor of the poet’s words as arrows and sees a link between the poet’s art and his society. But surely one can counter by citing the opinion of another writer with much greater experience and, moreover, with a personal history of state persecution: “A book cannot begin to fight against a sword on a battlefield.…”

Section: The Poet and The Truthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bayonets and the carnage of tongues: The contemporary Nigerian poet speaking truth to power

Diala

2016

The Journal of Commonwealth Literature

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The paradigmatic antagonistic relationship between the Nigerian poet and the despot in his guise as a military ruler has often been examined in terms of a hegemonic contestation of power between unequal rivals. The military state's typical response to the poet's "truth" with the display of excessive might, often involving the emblematic battering of the poet's tongue by the imposition of silence even in its eternal form of death, entrenches the notion of a powerful antagonist pitted against a weak opponent who nonetheless incarnates the spirit of the masses. A close reading of anti-military Nigerian poetry, however, underscores that the situation was replete with paradoxes: the inability of power to ignore apparent powerlessness; the ultimate triumph of powerlessness over power; and the fascinating replication in the counter-discourse of the (discursive) strategies of the dominant hegemony it battles against. This study highlights these trends in contemporary Nigerian poetry inspired by military despotism by paying particular attention to the work of the "third generation" of Nigerian poets.

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Section: The Poet and The Truthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bayonets and the carnage of tongues: The contemporary Nigerian poet speaking truth to power

Diala

2016

The Journal of Commonwealth Literature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Art and Outrage: A Critical Survey of Recent Nigerian Poetry in English

Cited by 1 publication

References 5 publications

Bayonets and the carnage of tongues: The contemporary Nigerian poet speaking truth to power

Bayonets and the carnage of tongues: The contemporary Nigerian poet speaking truth to power

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