Interrogating the Crisis of Postmodernist Theorizing in Contemporary Nigerian Novels (Review Completed - Accepted)
The post Second World War era of unprecedented information explosion is not without its negative consequences for Nigerian literary sensibilities. In the fast emerging ‘borderless’ world, creative attention shifted to the articulation of the Euro-American ideals. The Internet assisted in no small measure to ‘flood’ the globe with Western norms and, consequently, Nigerian novelists shifted their thematic and stylistic thrusts to reflect the West, at the detriment of their own cultural idiosyncrasies! Thus, against the backdrop of the resolve to appropriate an indigenous theoretical alternative, this study investigates the bastion of Euro-American critical standard that is at variance with the developmental yearnings of Nigerians. It employs the deconstructive approach to critique the epistemological foundation of Western intellectual discourse. It asserts that due largely to diverse cultural experiences between Africa and the West, Western system of thought is inadequate to advance development for a non-Western society. It submits that only a sustained quest into the core African worldview would elicit a credible theoretical standpoint for national development
Keywords: Deconstructive approach., Internet, Nigerian novelists, Second World War, indigenous theoretical alternative