Shaken Wisdom: Irony and Meaning in Postcolonial African FictionIn her focus on irony and meaning in postcolonial African fiction, Gloria Nne Onyeoziri refers to an internal subversion of the discourse of the wise and the powerful, a practice that has played multiple roles in the circulation of knowledge, authority, and opinion within African communities; in the interpretation of colonial and postcolonial experience; and in the ongoing resistance to tyrannies in African societies. But irony is always reversible and may be used to question the oppressed as well as the oppressor, shaking all presumptions of wisdom. Although the author cites numerous African writers, she selects six works by Chinua Achebe, Ahmadou Kourouma, and Calixthe Beyala for her primary analysis. Modern Language Initiative |
Contents
From Rhetoric to Semantics | 23 |
Interpreting Irony | 47 |
Pragmatics and Ahmadou Kouroumas Postcolonial State | 65 |
Chinua Achebes Arrow of God and the Pragmatics | 86 |
New Conceptions of the Ironic Voice | 114 |
When the Handshake Has Become Another Thing | 143 |
| 163 | |
Other editions - View all
Shaken Wisdom: Irony and Meaning in Postcolonial African Fiction Gloria Nne Onyeoziri Limited preview - 2011 |
Shaken Wisdom: Irony and Meaning in Postcolonial African Fiction Gloria Nne Onyeoziri No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Achebe Achebe’s African culture African fiction African literary discourse African literature African woman African writers Ahmadou Kourouma ambiguity Amours sauvages Anthills antiphrasis arbres en parlent argumentative Arrow Arrow of God Assanga audience authority Berrendonner Bessora bêtes sauvages Beyala Calixthe Beyala Chinua Achebe claim colonial context contradiction didactic Djigui donsomana Édène Ève-Marie Ève-Marie's example Ezeulu free indirect speech French function griot hyperbole Igbo Ikem implicitly implied interpretation ironic discourse ironic intent ironic meaning ironic utterance ironist irony in African koroduwa Kourouma Koyaga language linguistic Maclédio malinké metaphor metonymy Michel Ange Mongo Beti Monnè Muecke narrative narrator nõrô Norrick notion novel oppression oral outrages et défis political postcolonial pragmatic problem proverbs question reader relation relationship rhetorical role semantic sense sèrè situational irony social speak speaker speech stable irony subversive suggests theory tion traditional truth Umuaro utterance act verbal irony vote des bêtes women writing