Style, Language, and Symbolism in the Selected Poems and Drama of Niyi Osundare

Abstract

Poetry is a spoken literature while drama is performing arts. Both often emphasise cosmological realities of social order of human worlds. Their artistic values, improvisation, historical chronology, narrative techniques and performative styles are quintessential factors that give works of art a sense of socio-cultural and economic sensibilities that are deeply rooted in human endeavours. To many scholars, poetry and drama are traditional and modern mediums of expression that showcase social realities among the living and the dead in African society and, at the same time, serve as entertainment and performing art in contemporary age. However, poetry and drama have been deeply neglected on how modern-day authors use language as a resourceful tool of craftsmanship to showcase their socio-cultural backgrounds and their innate creativities. Therefore, this paper examines the use of style, language and symbolism in Niyi Osundare’s The Eye of the Earth, Village Voice, The Word is an Egg, and The State Visit (play). This is with a view to show that modern African writers are cultural ambassadors of their societies that promote their traditional cultural heritage through a resource of language techniques. Schechner’s Performance, Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytic theories were used to analyse the selected works in order to reveal the artistic rationale behind the author’s creative sensibilities. The selected poems and drama are subjected to performance and literary analyses.