IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES (IJELCS )

E-ISSN 2545-5702
P-ISSN 2695-2157
VOL. 9 NO. 4 2024
DOI: 10.56201/ijelcs.v9.no3.2024.pg125.136

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Linguistic Features of Solidarity in African Literature: A Study of Ola Rotimi’s Hopes of the Living Dead

Abubakar Atiku Alkali Halima Abdullahi Aminu

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Abstract

African literary writers are conscious of their existential experiences in colonial and post- colonial eras. Their works focus on attacking the perpetuation of the status-quo: colonialism, corruption and gender discrimination. This explains why their themes are mostly historically rooted. Solidarity is one of the thematic concerns of post-colonial African literary writings, as in Ola Rotimi’s Hopes of the Living Dead. The themes of the play are national solidarity, self- reliance and purposeful leadership. African literary writers communicate their themes by relying heavily on principles of effective communication which are essentially linguistic conventions. Linguistic features of communication are systematic and functional. According to Fowler (1981), “linguistic structure is not arbitrary. It is determined and motivated by the functions it performs.” Deploying insights from phonology, grammar, stylistics and pragmatics, this study is poised to reveal language use in African Literature, as a purposeful and productive indulgence, rather than being incidental. The study is anchored on Text Analysis Theory and Lee’s (1997) Cognitive Grammar Theory in the analysis of selected data from Hopes of the Living Dead. The study concludes that in writing as solidarity, linguistic features are used for the purpose of persuasive speech, and such features include specific clause structures, focused speech acts cohesive devices, image-conjuring diction as well as events-connecting nouns and pronouns.

keywords:

African Literature, Solidarity, Grammar, Stylistics, Text Analysis Theory, Cognitive

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