AFRICAN LITERATURE A CELEBRATION OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM: AN EXAMINATION OF CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S PURPLE HIBISCUS (Published)
This inquiry focuses on Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. This is precisely because scholarly studies on Adichie and her literary pieces have attracted increasing interest in literature in recent times, as a result of her recognition as the new voice of Nigerian and indeed African literature, given that she has gained a measure of success that eludes many old and new generation writers within and outside Africa. Earlier scholarship on Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus was generally concerned with plot advancement, character presentation, subject matter and thematic projection. Regrettably, none has paid adequate attention to the aesthetic values of Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. This therefore is the preoccupation of this exploration. This examination contends therefore that to extol her artistic liberty, Adichie uses Igbo English (IE) significantly as a deliberate but significant stylistic gizmo. Thus, Adichie writes her Purple Hibiscus in English Language and then she deploys supra-linguistics and para-verbal nuances such as local expressions, African oral tales, oral songs, code variation, transliteration, linguistic apposition, local idioms, incantations, and lampoons. All these language games and stylistic strategies boost the Africanity in her Purple Hibiscus.
Keywords: Creativity, Foregrounding, Nativization, Oral tradition, Style, Stylistics