The representation of the cultural and social world in selected Nigerian children's literature

This study grew out of a concern for the messages transmitted by Nigerian children's literature. Critical discourse analysis was chosen as a means to reach this goal. Critical discourse claims that language (1) transmits social and cultural messages, (2) is written in the interests of someone or something, and (3) is the site of broader social struggles. The theory of narrative art was chosen as a means to analyze the illustrations in the stories. That theory maintains that illustrations communicate messages through the use of artistic conventions, and complement the messages transmitted by the language in the stories. The authors were surveyed to triangulate the messages sent by the stories.; It was found that all of the ten stories analyzed did contain social and cultural messages. Furthermore, nine out of ten were moral in nature, either explicitly or implicitly stating a didactic message. Eight of the stories were identified as being written in the interests of both Nigerian and British culture, and promoting both colonial and postcolonial viewpoints. Therefore, it is unclear as to whether the stories were intended to promote one group's interests or social viewpoint at the expense of the other, or promote both groups' interests and both social viewpoints. The two remaining stories were identified as being written in the interests of Nigerian culture and promoting a postcolonial viewpoint.; It was also found that messages were transmitted by the illustrations through the use of artistic conventions when they were present, and that these messages enhanced the messages sent by the language in the stories.; Only one author, who wrote two of the stories, responded to the survey, and her response mirrored the messages extracted through the analysis of the stories. Therefore, teachers and parents need to be alert to the messages embedded in Nigerian children's literature. A set of guidelines formulated from this study may aid teachers and parents toward this end. Recommendations for future research include explicating British and Nigerian culture, colonialism and postcolonialism more definitively. Also, using more than one method to extract messages from the stories, such as reader response, may improve future studies.