Maupassant’s The Necklace as a Fictional Means of Assuaging the Illusions of Life: The Woman’s Perspective (Published)
The world we live in is an illusion. Unwary people kill themselves for worldly things that easily fade away. Many marriages in different societies of the world shatter simply because the spouses aspire to live above their standard. Most times, some women coerce their husbands into borrowing to buy costly wears for them simply to appear flamboyantly and be noticed in the society. Some people go to the extent of doing every odd thing just to give people the impression that they belong to the aristocratic class in their societies. Fiction is a work of imagination but then, an X-ray of life. This being the case, fiction is not only read for the mere entertainment that it offers, it is also read for the knowledge it offers. Many families today break indiscriminately because the spouses long to own what they cannot afford. In this paper therefore, the researchers examine the role of fiction as it pertains to helping couples live meaningful life in society with particular reference to Maupassant’s The Necklace. The Marxist approach is considered as the appropriate theory for the analysis.
Keywords: Fiction, Jewels, Maupassant, The Necklace, flamboyant, illusion
The Journey as Structural and Instrumental Technique in Nigerian Children’s Fiction (Published)
One unique feature of Nigerian children’s literature is the exploitation of the framework of journey to establish the relationship between the physical journey and the journey of life. Thus, the major characters in most books for children are always on a journey. This is very significant, as it helps the child brave up for the unpredictability of life, especially at this time when his mind is still impressionistic. Through textual analysis of select Nigerian children’s fiction, this paper reveals that the journey as used in these children’s books does not only serve structural purposes but also didactic and instructional.
Keywords: Fiction, Journey, Life, Literature, Nigeria, Relationship, children
Satire As Typified In Ramonu Sanusi’s Le Bistouri Des Larmes (Published)
Literature is an essential weapon for socio-political, cultural and economic struggles among other things. This art called literature is a source of dialogue, debate, exchange and innovation. A form of creativity which allows transfer of culture and knowledge that are useful for coping with societal challenges In other words, it paints life with a view to share human experiences, feelings, imaginations, observations, findings, predictions and suggestions for practical realities. In this paper, we attempt to examine “Satire as exemplified in Ramonu Sanusi’s Le Bistouri des larmes.”The purpose is to enhance the decoding/understanding of African Literature of French expression. Our review is premised on sociological approach, which holds that literature and other forms of creative arts should be examined in the cultural, economic and political context in which they are written, produced or received. This literary theory explores the connections/relationships between the artist/writer and his or her society. To better understand a writer’s literarywork(s), it may probe into the writer’s society as well as studying how societal elements are represented in the literature itself since it is believed that literature has certain functions to perform in contributing to the development of human societies through moral or behaviour re-orientation. The paper concludes that satire is an essential mechanism in the hands of many African writers to achieve their motives.
Keywords: Creativity, Fiction, Literature, Non-Fiction, Satire, Social Transformation, Society