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Social Contradictions and Change in Okri's Dangerous Love


James Otoburu Okpiliya
Tom Idom Inyabri

Abstract

Ben Okri is one of Africa's most experimental contemporary novelists in the Magical realist tradition through which he has carved a nitch for himself. In this paper we critically interrogate his utilization of the magic realist form in Dangerous Love to examine the theme of contradiction and love. Through a Marxist dialectic perspective, the paper finds a parallel between the setting of the novel (Lagos City) and the wider Nigerian postcolony. Also through this materialist reading, we uncouple the post-independent realities laden in a seemingly fantastic narrative, which has extended a tradition traceable to Amos Tutuola, D.O. Faguwa and Wole Soyinka in Nigerian Literature. By applying a dialectical reading to the magical realist narrative the paper concludes that there is a thin line that separates the oddities represented in Okri's narratives and the everyday realities in the Nigerian postcolony.


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eISSN: 1813-2227