Towards a stylistic model for analysing Anglophone African literatures: preliminary epistemological considerations and a case study

Abstract

Debates around the question of language in African literatures have been ubiquitous since the 1960s, yet only a relatively small number of studies have undertaken stylistic analyses of African works. At this stage, there is no clearly defined method enabling one to perform a comprehensive linguistic examination of African literatures in European languages. Focusing on Anglophone writing, this essay contends that the causes for this methodological shortcoming are chiefly epistemological. Part of the argument is that obstacles to the development of tools for a linguistic study of African literatures have presented themselves in relation to both the origin of the object of investigation and to the discipline of stylistics itself. It is also shown that these hurdles have been encountered in two distinct movements of linguistic research into African literatures: one focusing on the culturally-specific aspects of texts, and the other attempting a less context-dependent examination of literary pieces. After reviewing the different factors that have shaped – or hindered the development of – linguistic research into Anglophone African literatures over the years, the article outlines a methodological framework which, if further developed, may form the basis for a model of stylistic analysis. The combination of theories presented is then briefly used to interpret selected passages from the novel Purple Hibiscus (2003) by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. By way of conclusion, further lines of research are evoked.