1. Introduction
The dynamics of literature is not only polarized by entertainment as the lay man may pre-conceive. Rather, it is an instrument of literary art that succinctly examines the essence, its forms and prognosis with concrete allusions to what it epitomizes. ‘The dynamics of this relationship are such that society compellingly impinges upon the thematic and stylistic choices open to the literary artist to the extent that it can actually determine the success or failure of a work’ (Interrogating Power Relations..302). Similarly, ‘the relationship between society and literature relates to the connections between literature and society in whose context it is produced and whose members it is aimed at. The dynamics of this relationship are such that society compellingly impinges upon the thematic and stylistic choices open to the literary artist to the extent that it can actually determine the success or failure of a work’ (Ibid).
Literature encompasses morality in many ways: in teaching and in some of man’s domestic activities. Morality is derived from the Latin word “mores” which means custom. Didactic literature, however, teaches morality. Morality is sometimes used interchangeably with ethics which is the branch of philosophy which deals with the morality of human conducts. There are certain actions which all of us would condemn as morally wrong and ought not to be done. For instance, the act of armed robbery, the embezzlement of public funds, bribery and corruption and other related vices. There are certain other actions which all of us would consider as morally right, for instance, kindness, honesty, hospitality and respect for human life. It is in connection with these moral rights and vices that the importance of morality in public life assumes a prestigious pedigree. Men as a social being have both material and spiritual needs. For society to achieve its aim of empowering man for good and transforming society, it must be holistic. That is, it must cater for man’s temporal needs and his eternal goals. It must address the needs of his socio-economic, cultural and political as well as his moral life. Moral development is a process of developing acceptable behaviour or patterns of interaction with other people. It is through social development that individual developing appropriate social skills, values, morals for the sustenance of the society (Oripeloye, 3).
Didactic literature teaches man who lives in society how to make a constructive use of his reasoning faculty and education to transform for better and live well. An educated man without morals is like a suicide bomber with grenades strapped to his waist. Learning without character or education without morality turns a ruler of a people into the chief looter of the people’s wealth. It is morality that checks and moderates the excesses of man and channels his resources away from destructive uses towards the development of society. The point we are trying to make here is that without thinking and acting morality, it may be practically impossible to pursue development in any sphere of human experience if people are egoistic in the pursuance of material development without its complements in morals. This may have therefore been partly responsible for a disconnect between morality and development in our national life (Ibid).
Our preoccupation in this paper is to attempt a meta-critical analysis of the generations and trends in Children’s Literature in Nigeria. We shall do this by examining succinctly Ezeigbo’s attempted work on Children Literature and the areas of inadequacies. The theory of narratology is very fundamental to the study and understanding of children’s literature. Narratology, which is a science of fiction, is very cogent in the development of the mindset of the younger generations. The handling of the motifs of morality and didactics in fiction helps to re-structure the thoughts of younger people for a competitive future.
2. Morality and Didactism in Nigerian Children Literature: Trends and Prognosis
Writers over the ages have used their literary works of art to propel societal instruments. According to Aduke Adebayo in her celebrated Inaugural lecture which is entitled The Nature and Functions of Literature: The Comparatist’s Perspective, she opines that from 18th Century, the term Literature has vividly incorporates knowledge, reading and knowledge. She later probes that its applicability to human development is generally called GREAT BOOKS. That is, the works of renowned writers from every branch of human knowledge which are notable for their literary expressions and ideas which the society generally agrees that they deserve to be preserved.
Our preoccupation in this paper is to attempt a meta-critical analysis of the generations and trends in Children’s Literature in Nigeria. We shall do this by examining succinctly Ezeigbo’s attempted work on Children Literature and the areas of inadequacies. The theory of narratology is very fundamental to the study and understanding of children’s literature. Narratology, which is a science of fiction, is very cogent in the development of the mindset of the younger generations. The handling of the motifs of morality and didactics in fiction helps to re-structure the thoughts of younger people for a competitive future.
Writers of children’s literature in Nigeria have sustainable development at the back of their minds. Sustainably developing the economy by catching the children young mentally is a way of preparing them for a challenging and competitive society. By projecting moral elements which would teach the children the essence of life could prepare them for an egalitarian worldview. Some stories in Africa cannot be traced to any source other than oral traditions. Many tortoise stories were artificial creations to teach the children lessons and the need to prefer good tenets of life to the negative ones. The Ashanti tortoises’ and hare’s stories were artificial creations which were meant to stimulate good tidings among all ages of children. The Yoruba and Igbo’s conservative use of recurring and reverberating proverbs were re-constructed for surviving the egalitarian Nigerian state.
Children’s literature in Nigeria also has social function, or ‘use’, which cannot be purely individual. (Interrogating Power Relations, 94). This notion of literature has been vigorously defended in different literary circles as widely dispersed regions of the world: the overt morality of the satire-ridden Augustan Age in England, and the aggressive nationalism of the Harlem Renaissance in the United States and the Negritude movement in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean islands are obvious examples. Due to its repeatedly-tragic history, with its narrative of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, it is perhaps inevitable that modern African literature is highly attuned to the requirements of contemporary African society.
3. Narratology as Scientific Instrument in Children’s Literature
Mieke Bal’s Narratology (1985) and Dino Felluga The Introduction to Narratology (2002), visualize ‘narratology as being dominated by structuralist approaches at its beginning’. The duo, in their analyses, continue that ‘narratology has developed into a variety of theories, concepts, and analytic procedures’. Narratology is projected as the theory and study of the narratives. Narrative structure and the way they affect our perceptions are examined. In principle, narratology can be referred to any systematic study of narratives, though in practice the use of the term is rather more restricted. It is because of this restrictive application that it is decided that this theoretical framework be modeled to the study and understanding of children’s literature in Nigeria.
The word “narratology” is an anglicization of the French word narratologie”. Tzvetan Todorov in his Grammaire du Decameron (1969), coins the word, and has been retrospectively applied by many writers. Although a lineage stretching back to Aristotle’s Poetics may be traced, modern narratology is most typically said to begin with the Russian formalist and in particular with Vladimir Prop’s Morphology of the Folktale (1928).
More importantly, narratology would enable mature readers and critics examine the structure of children writings, their cultural artifacts and the ordering of time and space in narrative forms. This is because narratologists love to categorize and to taxonomize, which have led to a plethora of terms to explain the complicated nature of media in our lives (television, film, fiction), narratology is also a useful foundation to have before one begins to analyze popular culture (62). Children narratives show popular culture about the people from their personal effects to their public functioning and to their civic responsibilities of obeying their parents and keeping children’s rules of abiding by instructions.
Sjuzhet is that aspect of narratology that celebrates the historical relevance in children’s literature. It is expedient to know that the plot of the narrative must follow a definite historical epoch in the writing. That is why a narrative that does not have any historical antecedent which the child can lay hold on to teach morality in society is said to have failed drastically. Fabula is the content of the story and the storyline through which the plot of the narrative is hinged upon. Every narrative, to be overt, must encapsulate both the Sjuzhet and Fabula. The Discourse, however, celebrates the totality of the movements in the narration. It involves, in analysis, characters and characterization in time and space.
Akachi Ezeigbo: Children’s Literature in Nigeria, Prospects and Problems
Akachi Ezeigbo is a Professor of African Literature at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Her works cut across creative and critical works. She attempts a survey into the prospects and problems associated with children’s literature in Nigeria. She aligns herself with the positions of many renowned scholars such as Emeyonu and Nnolim the Iroko of African Literature. In many submissions she agrees and disagrees with some of their positions. It is worthy of emulation that Ezeigbo, probes into what children’s literature encapsulates, she opines that ‘the literature under discussion concerns pre-adolescents – children between 7 and 12 years’ and this ‘genre of children’s literature include folktales, fiction, drama, poetry, pictures books, fantasy, and fairy tales. The most popular in Nigeria seem to be folktales and fiction though some poetry collections and plays have been produced for children’ (50 Years of Children’s Literature in Nigeria: Prospects and Problems, 1).
Ezeigbo’s emphasis on ‘sexes’ gives her paper more literary prominence. She asserts that both male and female author of children’s literature create protagonists and antagonists from both sexes. With the emergence of female writers of children literature, there is a revolution in female protagonists propelling one message or the other. This motif is of reckoning interest to the narratologist as he tends to taxonomize and demonstrate new phenomena in time and in space. It is a motif of discourse in technical. The equal representation of ‘sex’ in literary art underscores maturity and distinct portrayal of gender balance.
It is pertinent to note that Ezeigbo’s analysis did not follow the line of the application of children’s fiction to the world of science. That is the inadequacy of her presentations. However, science of fiction analyzed from the above mentioned texts within the past fifty years motivates a clearer study of the psyche and the state of the minds of the Nigerian child. The science of fiction is of paramount interest to the narratologist because this notion gives the Nigerian child a clue into his historical artifacts (Sjuzhet) and the content of the plot (Fabula) of the fiction.
5. Recommendations and Conclusion
African literature is undergoing development in writing and in worldview. From being a weeping literature to being educative and resourceful, many evolutionary factors with regards contemporary motifs were illuminated in African literary canon. During the Eurocentric times when writers celebrate Europe, many inadequacies were recorded. With the emergence of Lindfors, Emenyonu and Nnolim in the African literary landscape, attention have been shifted from ordinary assumptions to concrete African realism. The development of children literature becomes of great interest to all in Nigeria. The study attempts a cursory presentation of Ezeigbo’s perception on children’s literature in Nigeria with a meta-critical evaluation of relevant sections. It visualizes narratology as contemporary scientific instrument of morality and didactics. The study envisages that the future would be brighter if too many sociological assumptions give way to narratology. Narratological evaluations of African works, children works and others are significant instruments which lend axiomatic credence to vertical and horizontal relevance in African nationalism.
Works Cited
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Adimora-Ezeigbo, Akachi. The Last of the Strong Ones. Lagos: Vista Books. 1996.
---. 50 Years of Children’s Literature in Nigeria: Prospects and Problems. A Conference paper Published at www.gardencityfestival.com/attachments/ 2011.
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Culler, Jonathan. The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction. (ed) Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1981.
Emenyonu, Ernest. Literature and Black Aesthetics. Ibadan: Heinemann, 1990.
Felluga, Dino. Introduction to Narratology. Pardue: Pardue U P, 2002.
Ogunyemi, C.B et al. ‘A Study on Gender Consciousness in Nigerian Autobiographical Narratives and Power of the Interview’. Journal of Education and Practice. Vol 2 No 4. 2011.
Todorov, Tzetan. Grammaire du Decameron. The Hague: Monton. 1969.
Wellek R. and Warren. A Theory of Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1982.