Major Tenors in Nigerian Literature: Creative and Critical

Abstract

This article is essentially an offprint, a brief part of a series – components of a larger research project that deals with performance poetry. The main thrust of the larger project (not this article) is to apply theoretical models I have propounded earlier (“universalist relativism†and “praxiphonoaestheticsâ€) to performance poetry of especially the spoken word variant in modern Nigeria. This larger project also looks at traditional minstrelsy and chants as modern revamps and revivals and how they operate alongside spoken word in a digitally enabled new (social) media world. This segment here deals briefly with the major trends witnessed in Nigerian literature since the late colonial and postcolonial era as a broad background that chronicles the robust literary scene that has propped Nigerian writers. It has two parts: the first that deals with creative impetuses while the second handles the major critical waves so far. Though basically an offprint to aid in awareness and possibly engender critical interaction about the main project, this article has the almost complete independence to stand alone, hence its publication and does not lay claim to being exhaustive on the said subject matter.