A Narrative Study Of The Early Nigerian English Fiction

Since the mid 20th century,Nigerian English literature have made substantial developent,with narrative fiction representing the fastest and the greatest achievement.A group of early novelists writing in the colonist language,such as Amos Tutuola,Cyprian Ekwensi,Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka,tried to tell the story of modern Nigeria with the exotic literary form of novel,and with imaginative creation and intellectual efforts,they made a fundamental change in the landscape of Nigerian narrative literature.Aiming at 41 works by 16 fictionists and placing them within the framework of the overall development of Nigerian narrative literature,this dissertation explores the rise of Nigerian English fictions,the formation of their narrative traditions from the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s,and the evolution of their narrative models.This dissertation uses the methods of social historical criticism,narrative criticism and post-colonial criticism to investigate the above said research objects.The whole discussion consists of seven parts.The introduction elucidates the origin of the topic,the significance of the research and literature review,and defines the key concepts,research period and research methods.Chapter one deals with the conditions necessary for the rise of English fictions in Nigeria.The factors of modernity in the process of colonization and the rising nationalism provided cultural,social and ideological conditions for the development of Nigerian English fictions.Colonial rule cultivated the Nigerian elites on the one hand and inspired their national cultural consciousness on the other hand.This is a paradox which in turn led to the emergence of mainstream of early Nigerian English fictions.Chapter two deals with the formation of narrative traditions in early Nigerian English fiction.By their adoption of the novel form and adaptation in cross-cultural contact,the early Nigerian English fictionists creatively transformed the traditional oral narrative models,in the meanwhile selectively borrowed the foreign narrative elements or ideologically refuted the imperial hegemony implied in these elements.They developed a diversified narrative sub-genres with realism as the dominant text style by expressing different realistic concerns in different historical contexts.Chapter three deals with the narrative time of early Nigerian English fictions.A new historical consciousness caused by development of literacy in oral society,changes of propagation modes in the art of narration,and the sense of social responsibility of the early Nigerian English fictionists induced them to adopt realistic technique as major device for narrative expression,thus changing the narrating models in the Nigerian narrative literature as a whole.The early Nigerian English fictionists accepted the formal realism requirement of the novel,making the expression of time in the their narrative close to the representation of the daily life pattern,therefore making it different from that in the oral narrative.In terms of narrative techniques,they developed a variety of narrative time models such as inverted narration and alternative narration,which is different from the single coherent narration in oral form,thus showing the aesthetic characteristics of modern narrative.However,due to the traditional aesthetic complex for plots and story of the early Nigerian English fictionists,coherent narrative remains important.In terms of narrative speed,the narrative in the early Nigerian English fictions is "slower" compared with the storytelling model.The description of customs and rituals in Nigerian traditional society even leads to the stop in the narration,thus formulating a special narrative rhythm that reflects special historical contexts.Chapter four deals with the narrative points of view of early Nigerian English fictions.The early Nigerian English fictionists accepted the formal realism requirement of the novel,and also adopted the limited view,which changed the traditional narrative landscape in which the omniscient narrative was absolutely dominant.However,the early Nigerian English fictionists,aware of the limitation of limited point of view,did not abandon the important position of the omniscient narrator of the storytelling tradition,thus highlighting the subjectivity of the omniscient narrator in their narrative works.Chapter five deals with the narrative structure of early Nigerian English fictions.Early Nigerian English fictionists accepted the requirement of the formal realism of the novel,that is the subtle characterization and detailed presentation of background.Therefore,characters and background were able to occupy a more important position in the narrative structure than before,and the the traditional structure with plot in center was disintegrated.This change caused the dynamic displacement of the three major structural elements,which are character,plot and background,in the narrative configuration.Early Nigerian English fictionists generally respected the realistic narrative principle,and eventually formed a narrative structure in which the three structural constituents were interdependent and integrated with each other.Through a systematic narrative study of early Nigerian English fictions,this dissertation comes to the the following conclusions.First,the emergence of the school of realism in Nigerian English fictions is the product of early English fictionists who rose up to refute the disparagement and false imagination of Africa and Africans in colonialist narration,and to assert their national history and culture.This large number of narrative works is essentially the paradoxical product of the colonial institution.The origin of the school also determines that the early Nigerian English fictions are generally political.Second,the formation of diverse narrative sub-genres with realism as dominating text style in the early Nigerian English fictions is the result of early English fictionists’ response to the ever changing social and political realities in Nigeria as well as in Africa,which highlights the connection between the development of literary forms and social contexts.Third,the development of narrative models in the early Nigerian English fictions marks the transformation in Nigerian narrative literature,which is from West African oral narrative to modern written narrative.The factors affecting this process mainly come from the change of literary creation concept caused by the literacy development,and the consciousness of social responsibility of the early Nigerian English fictionists.Fourth,the transformation of the narrative models of the early Nigerian English fictions shows that although the early Nigerian English fictionists choose to adopt the foreign novel form to push Nigerian narrative literature towards modern narrative,the tradition always plays a significant role in the cross-cultural adjustment,and finally determines the domestication characteristics of the novel form in Nigeria.