Bücher von James Ede

Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Literature - Africa, grade: 1,3, University of Nigeria (Department of English and Literary Studie), course: Pragmatics, language: English, abstract: This work is concerned with the application of Relevance Theory within the context of the play ¿Morotoundun¿ by Nigerian playwright Femi Osofisan.In Pragmatics, context is paramount. In other words, an audience is constrained to understand the speaker¿s intention by taking cognisance of the context in which utterances are expressed. One of those pragmatic theories of context interpretations is Relevance Theory. Within the purview of this theory, the cognitive domain of the audience is taken under advisement. In other words: in order to understand utterances of a speaker from within his context, the audience has to make use of their cognition in order to achieve optimal communicative relevance.Therefore, Relevance Theory is applied to the play by analysing the conversations of the characters therein based on their contexts. During that process, the work also quickly touches upon the question of the place of women in African Literature and the function of theatre as a tool of a potential proletarian revolution.The analysis does establish that the characters¿ dialogues achieve communicative relevance by the cognitive ability of the reader to process contextual utterances.

Document from the year 2018 in the subject Literature - Africa, grade: A, University of Nigeria, language: English, abstract: From time immemorial, different societies all over the world have roles/statuses assigned to males and females. There are different images as regards men/women. And male/female relationship is conservatively established. All these gender issues are portrayed through the agency of language, discourse. In this essay, Feminist theory is used in studying gender discourse as it appears in Chika Unigwe¿s Night Dancer. This work establishes that the society of the text is highly patriarchal. Hence, the female character who breaks this stranglehold of patriarchy faces societal stigma.Literature is conveyed through the instrumentality of language which explores universal themes. One of such themes portrayed in literary works is gender. According to Wodak, ¿gender [is] not only being constructed and performed through language but also accomplished, achieved, enacted, and effected by language¿. In constructing gender via language, literary works from the classical periods don¿t have equal positions for males and females. This is because the societies in those works are patriarchal. The subordination of women in the West is reflected in a lot of literary works.In African literature as well, female characters are created to fill a subordinate status in the family cum society. For instance, Nwajiaku states that ¿Most African societies are patriarchal in constitution. This implies a male- dominated social system, where women are only tangential within the scheme¿ (345). This ¿male-dominated social system¿ is prevalent in early male-authored literary works of African literature. For instance, in Achebe¿s Things Fall Apart, A Man of the People, No Longer at Ease, women are shown as appendages to their husbands. They are expected to be quiet and subdued and their primary concerns are their children.