ABSTRACT
This research work
addressed itself to the way people tend to see fictional works. People
see fictional works as being fictitious, but they are over laid with
fact. This long essay, using Akachi Adimora. Ezeigbo’s works as guide,
demonstrated the impact of the intermeddling of fact with fiction in
literary works. They do not always obstruct each other and when
harnessed depending on the ingenuity of the artist they can serve
multiple purposes. The sociological socialist realism theory is used in
this research work because real and factual events in Ezeigbo’s life are
contained in her works. Ezeigbo make use of the Igbo setting. There are
names proverbs, idioms and practices that epitomize the Igbo culture
and Igbo world view. Her works are linked between her fiction and her
lived experience. The major source of her stories is her own direct
experience through fiction. Oral Aesthetics is highly portrayed in
Ezeigbo’s works in her constant use of songs, proverbs, lullabies and
the Igbo cultural setting. This study has shown that Akachi Adimora
Ezeigbo, a fictional writer wrote about her own personal experiences in
her novels and short stories.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title Page
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract Vii
Table of Content viii
1.0 CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Definition of Terms 7
1.3 The Last of the Strong Ones : A Synopsis 11
1.4 The Relationship Between Facts and Fiction 13
1.5 Research Problem 16
1.6 Methodology 16
1.7 Scope of Study and Limitation 17
1.8 Justification 17
1.9 Purpose of Study 18
1.10 Structure of Thesis 19
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature Review 20
2.1 Issues Relating to Akachi Adimora — Ezeigbo’s Writings 20
2.2 Aesthetics in Akachi’s Works. 34
2.3 Adimora — Ezeigbo’s Formal Aesthetics Borrowings from the
Oral Narrative Tradition. 35
2.4 The Role of the Writer in Literature 38
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Fact and Fiction in Akachi Adimora —Ezeigbo’s The Last of the
Strong Ones and Children of the Eagle 41
3.2 The Search for Self 43
3.3 The War’s Untold Story: The Challenging Years of Youth 47
3.4 Marriage and Family Life 51
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1
The Aesthetics Residues of Facts and Fiction: An Example of Akachi’s
The Last of the Strong Ones and Children of the Eagle. 59
4.2 The Igbo Nuaces in The Last of the Strong Ones and Children of the Eagle 72
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Summary of Findings and Conclusion of the Research Work 74
5.2 Summary 76
5.3 Findings 78
5.4 Conclusion 81
Bibliography 83
INTRODUCTION
Literature
is studied for various reasons. It covers all aspects of human life. It
is all-embracing and encapsulating. It contains artistic truth, which
is better than historical truth. An artistic truth applies to every
situation of life while historical truth appeals to a specific situation
of life.
A quality of Akachi Ezeigbo which makes her fiction
not just reading matter is her ability to knit life experiences into
art. There is an effort to make the incidents as realistic as possible
not just in context but in form and style. Prominent among her choice of
techniques is foreshadowing and the use of the third person omniscient
narrator.
A writer is a “righter” righting the societal
“wrongs”. This is another way of saying that a writer is a watchdog to
the society. He comments upon social happenings with the aim of
improving them. This argument can be used to nullify the
“art-for-art-sake” philosophy of literature. Art - for - art - sake
perception opines that literature should be on its own aesthetics and
not be mixed up with politics. In reality, literature cannot really be
separated from human experience from the political, social, religious
and cultural realm.
Literature is essentially a creative art.
Hence, originality and creativity are the key words. Most of the ideas
in 1 are either totally imagined (fiction) or partially imagined.
Partial imagination is interplay of fact and art known as faction.
The
generally accepted notion is that literature mirrors the society. But
literature, as can be deduced from the present ideological trends does
not stop at mirroring the society. It does more than mirror the society.
It does not just give us the picture of our lives alone but goes
further to suggest ways of improving ourselves. Literature is th private
and public awareness given to both the individual and the society
respectively through the exposure of the hidden or open truths that
people seem to be ignorant of. Literature aims at affecting a change in
the societal status quo.
Omotayo Oloruntoba -Oju (1999) cited in Ibrahim B.F. & Akande F.F, States that;
The
term. literature may be used to refer to any material in written form
or any other material whose features lend them to literary appreciation
or appraisal... the term in a specialized sense refers to works of art
in any of the established literary genres, prose, poetry and drama..
One
would have expected Oloruntoba - Oju to have recognized the
un-established and un-written genre (material as well in her definition
of literature in order to make such a definition comprehensive enough.
According to Terry Eagleton (1983) Cited in Akande and Ibrahim (1997),
Literature
is a liberating force, freeing us from the inherent shackles placed
upon us by the society. Literary criticism is therefore born out of it
struggle against a loss of culture and its feature becomes defined as
struggle against the foreseen bourgeois stat and it’s has no
predetermined future.
All definitions of literature hang on
essentially what literature looks like, what it aims at doing or what it
is for or why it is the way it is or what it should be used for.
Literature as a discipline is a spoken or written medium which uses
languages, plot, character and setting to give us a picture of what our
life looks like.
Literature draws its strength from actual
life. It deals with human life with all its complexities and
difficulties. Literature deals with the Joys, Sorrows, Poverty, Plenty
and above all death to which man is subjected and which is man’s enemy.
The
Literature of a particular community can be defined as the sum total of
all works of imagination either in oral or written form, in prose or in
verse .which have helped to reflect and project the life and culture of
that community in the three important areas of narrative fiction, drama
and poetry. Literature, like all other art forms draws on human
experience and tries to reflect the same and communicate it back to man
in an ordered or artistic form. This is because the human condition is
the reality known to most men and women and it is this reality that
literary artists depend on for their writings.
Literature may
deal with particular and contemporary events and issues or with
attitudes and behavior in contemporary and particular situations. For
example, Achebe’s A Man of the People (1966) deals with politics and
politicians in the early years of Nigerian independence. A very
remarkable way of showing the despicable, ruthless and selfish
politician of the period is found in the portraiture of Chief Nanga.
Also in Nigeria, the events of the civil war of 1967 — 1970 are made
memorable in for example:
Akachi-Adimora’s The Last of the
Strong Ones (1996) and Children of the Eagle (2002). These writing are
varied accounts of the Nigerian civil war, a contemporary event and
through them unborn generations will be aware, even if not of the full
factual details of the war of at least the basic perceptions of the war.
Literature
enlarges ones experience. Some texts will lend themselves to easy
understanding simply because of the reader’s actual experience. Hence,
all definitions of literature boil down to and emphasize its nature,
form and utility. These days, unlike in the past when the literature of a
people is said to be the unwritten records of those set of people, the
word literature is used to refer to a collection of historical,
geographical and academic records such as personal essays, speeches,
biographies and letters.
Nigerian writers generally appear to
be more interested in recreating in the reader’s mind, a whole
traditional way of life, bringing out varying degrees a man’s realities,
by making use of frequent allusions to their people’s customs ‘and
tradition. They bring on record communal activities such as festivals,
ceremonies, ritual practices, beliefs, occupations and the co-existing
nature typical of all Africans.
Hence, these writers have
their foundations in the cultural heritage of their respective ethnic
groups. Ernest Emenyonu (1972) rightly puts it thus:
In a
multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria, it is imperative that the culture and
life-ways of the component units should be given full airing so that
national sentiments could be built upon the foundation of understanding.
In
the same vein, Emmanuel Obiechina (1975) reasserts that “it is only by
incorporating Nigerian tradition in our writings that make them
Nigerian”.
Finally, literature is a portrait of man and his
environment held up for him to see by the artist, so that he can have
profound reflections about his world view and general existence. Critics
of literature must understand it’s interdisciplinary nature for an
intensive and extensive comprehension. Literature should contain
ideology and also reflect the human mind. This is the meeting point
between creativity and criticism
You either get what you want or your money back. T&C Apply