Stylistic Analysis of Ola Rotimi's Hopes of the Living Dead

Abstract

This paper explores the writer.s choice of language and linguistic techniques which are effective in passing across his message.Itdiscusses the stylistic rudiments Rotimi uses in realising the play.The stylistic features  include:diction, sentence types,code-mixing, Nigerianisms, punctuation marks, figures of speech, use of music or songs and the use of gestures. The main theoretical thrust is style as an individual in which all other facets of style rally round. This is what Middleton (32) calls 'the idiosyncrasy of expression by which we recognise a writer...' Leech and Short (11) see it as "...the linguistic habits of a particular writer... "Ola Rotimi uses language (through literature) as aninstrument of national cohesion especiallyin a pluralistic culture and multi-linguistic environment.