Literature and development: perspectives from stylistics

Abstract

This study seeks solution to the problem of underdevelopment. It examines how indigenous narrative knowledge and literary information could bring development to post-colonial societies and the human society. It focuses on the role of mediatory/ternary force in stylistic analysis of texts, and it attempts an analysis of selected African texts: Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drinkard, Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, and Niyi Osundare’s Waiting Laughters. The study establishes/re-establishes stylistics and post-structuralism’s mediatory/ternary force as significant determiners to the interpretation of literary discourse. The study finds that hidden/hitherto overlooked meanings and cultural information from literary texts could serve as tools for societal development.

Keywords: Stylistics, Post-colonialism, African Literature, Development, Post-culturalism